SURPRISE, Ariz. – After battling through the consolation bracket, the UH-Hilo women’s tennis team settled for a sixth-place finish after falling 4-1 to Stanislaus State on Saturday morning in the Pacific West Conference Championships fifth-place game at the Surprise Tennis &Racquet Complex.
The 10th-seeded Vulcans opened the 12-team postseason tournament with a big win over No. 7 Biola before falling to No. 2 Azusa Pacific in the quarterfinal round. UH-Hilo then defeated No. 6 Academy of Art 4-2, before falling to 12th-seeded Stanislaus State to end the week.
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Consolation game: No. 10 UH-Hilo 4 – No. 6 Academy of Art 2
Academy of Art was shorthanded for the match, playing with five players to give UH-Hilo a default win in one of the three doubles matches as well as for one of the singles points.
While ART U battled the Vulcans tough on court two in doubles, Julia Barden and Nanami Okamoto wrapped up the doubles point with a 6-4 victory on court one.
Academy of Art climbed its way back into the match by taking singles victories at the No. 1 and No. 5 spots to make the match even at 2-2.
The Urban Knights looked to be in position to snatch the victory away after going up a set on both courts three and four, but the Vulcans’ Hikari Osaki and McKenna Mountain battled back to take thrilling three-set victories to clinch the 4-2 match win.
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Fifth place game: No. 12 Stanislaus State 4 – No. 10 UH-Hilo 1
After an opening-round upset over fifth-seeded Fresno Pacific, No. 12 Stanislaus fell to Point Loma Nazarene but continued to fight its way toward the top with wins over No. 9 Metro State Denver and No. 10 UH-Hilo.
The Warriors took quick 6-2 and 6-1 victories in the doubles round for an early 1-0 lead
before snatching up singles
victories at the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5 spots to earn a fifth-place finish in the PacWest Championships.
Nanami Okamoto got a 6-3, 6-1 victory on court five for the Vulcans’ lone point of the match.
Men’s tennis
The UH-Hilo men’s tennis team secured a victory on the final day of the Pacific West Conference Championships, screeching by Fresno Pacific, 4-3, for a seventh-place finish in the eight-team postseason tournament at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex.
The Vulcans, seeded eighth, fell on the opening day to No. 1 HPU before dropping a 4-0 contest to No. 5 Biola in the consolation bracket.
In its final game of the season, UH-Hilo opened with grabbing the doubles point after a 6-4 win on court one by Filippo Di Perna and Coby Pearce, and a 6-3 victory on court two by Luca Matheiowetz and Ryosuke Sowa.
In the singles matches, quickly made up ground with wins at the No. 4 and No. 6 spots for a 2-1 lead.
The match eventually came down to court five with sophomore Luka Petrikic playing just his fourth singles match of the season.
After taking the first set going to a 7-2 tiebreaker, Petrikic closed out the match with a 6-2 second-set victory.
