KAILUA KONA, Hawai'i – The top ranked Hawai'i Pacific University men's tennis team won a pair of matches and lost one to open 2017 team season at Holua Tennis Center last weekend.
 
The Sharks (2-1) defeated Sonoma State (Calif.) 9-0 early Saturday, but fell to No. 13 UC San Diego 5-4 later that day. The Sharks outdistanced Hawai'i-Hilo 7-2 on Monday.
 
The Sharks won't be in action again until Thursday, Mar. 2, when visit Azusa Pacific in a 10:30 a.m. HST (12:30 PST) match.
 
Sonoma State 9-0
 
The No. 1 Sharks opened the season on a winning note, easily handling the Seawolves 9-0.
 
HPU lost only four games in doubles with Filip Dolezel/Jakub Hadrava shutting out Max Nudell/Alec Wong 8-0 at No. 1, and Jack Lyttle/Torben Otto doing the same at No. 2 to Blaine Mengert/Sullivan Roche. The No. 3 doubles team of Filip Soban/Juan Erro beat Mitchel Heckmann/Kevin To 8-4.
 
In singles, 13th ranked Dolezel beat Nudell 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1, as 34th ranked Otto down Wong 6-0, 6-3. Hadrava beat Mengert 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3, with Soban downing Heckmann 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4. Lyttle defeated Nicky Valdecanas 6-0, 6-3 at No. 5 and Erro blitzed To at No. 6, 6-0, 6-1.
 
UC San Diego 4-5
 
The No. 1 Sharks doubled up on opening day and fell to No. 13 UC San Diego 5-4.
 
The Sharks grabbed an early 2-1 lead with wins in doubles. Dolezel/Hadrava defeated Marc Isaia/Alexandre Miaule 8-3 at No. 1, as No. 3 team of Soban/Erro beat Eric Tseng/Justin Zhang 8-3. UCSD took the No. 2 match with Edvin Larsson /Sreeganesh Monoharan beating the Sharks Lyttle/Otto 8-5.
 
The singles matches saw UC San Diego surprise the Sharks, winning four of the six positions to win the match.
 
HPU got victories at No. 1 with 13th ranked Dolezel beating 36th ranked Tseng 6-4, 6-4, and at No. 5 as Lyttle beat Larsson 6-3, 6-1.
 
HPU dropped two key matches in three sets. At No. 2, UCSD's Miaule defeated 34th ranked Otto 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 and at No. 6 the Tritons Marius Ruh downed Erro 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
 
Zhang defeated HPU's Hadrava 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 and Isaia beat Soban 6-4, 7-5 at No. 4.
 
Hawai'i-Hilo 9-0
 
No. 1 HPU came back on Monday with a 7-2 win over the Vulcans of Hawai'i-Hilo on the Big Island on President's Day.
 
The Sharks led 2-1 after doubles, winning No. 1 with Dolezel/Hadrava 8-2 over Vaclav Slezak/Gregory Zukeran, and No. 3 with Soban/Erro downing Stefan Coney/Daniel Tada 8-5. UHH claimed No. 2 with Alex Fillat/Bruno Figlia beating Lyttle/Otto 8-4.
 
The Sharks claimed all but one of the six singles points, with 13th ranked Dolezel leading the way at No. 1 over Slezak 6-2, 6-4, and 34th ranked Otto over Zukeran 6-1, 6-1. Lyttle beat Coney 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4, Soban downed Figlia 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5 and Erro beat Ogawa 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6.
 
UHH won the No. 3 singles point when Hadrava and Filat split their sets 6-4, 6-7, and a 10-point tiebreaker went to Filat 10-6.