KAILUA-KONA, Hawai'i – The No. 8 Hawai'i Pacific University men's tennis team took it on the chin to start the 2018 season as they dropped three matches on the Big Island this holiday weekend.
 
The Sharks (0-3) fell on Saturday to Hawai'i Hilo 7-2, to No. 15 UC San Diego 6-3 on Sunday, and finally a second loss to UH Hilo 6-3 on Monday.
 
On Saturday, HPU got wins at No. 2 doubles and No. 4 singles in the 7-2 loss. The Sharks duo of Benjamin Loccisano and Juan Erro defeated Alex Fillat and Bruno Figlia 8-5 at No. 2, and Jack Lyttle defeated Fillat 7-5, 6-3 at No. 4 singles.
 
The Vulcans won at all the rest of the positions.
 
At No. 1 singles, 17th ranked Vaclav Slezak beat 27th ranked Loccisano 6-4, 7-5, Alessandro Giuliato won at No. 2 over Maxime Gayte 6-4, 6-1, Chun En Wu downed 46th ranked Gerardo Irrarrazabal 6-4, 6-1, Arturo Dell'Eva went three sets to beat Juan Erro at No. 5 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, and Gregory Zukeran beat Adrian Elduque 6-3, 6-4. In doubles, Slezk/Giulato beat Gayte/Lytle 8-3 at No. 1 and Zukeran/Wu beat Irrarrazabel/Elduque 8-5.
 
Sunday's match saw 15th ranked UC San Diego sweep doubles before No. 8 HPU split the singles with the Triton.
 
The Sharks won at No. 2 singles where Gayte defeated 39th ranked Justin Zhang 7-6, 6-4, at No. 4 with Lyttle beating Richard Han 6-2, 6-2, and at No. 5 Erro got by Marius Ruh 6-4, 4-6, 10-4.
 
The No. 15 Tritons won at No. 1 singles with 21st ranked Eric Tseng 5-7, 6-2, 11-9, at No. 3 with Marc Isaia beat 46th ranked Gerardo Irrarrazabel 6-3, 7-5 and No. 6 as Neil Tengbumroong downed Adrian Elduque 6-4, 6-0. In the doubles sweep, Isaia/Sreeganesh Manoharan beat Gayte/Lyttle 8-4 at No. 1, Tseng/Zhang upended Loccisano/Erro 8-2 at No. 2, and Tengbumroong/Eskil Jarlskog took out Irrarrazabel/Elduque 8-1.
 
Monday's match found HPU jumping out to the early lead by taking two of three doubles points.
 
HPU's No. 1 duo of Gayte/Lyttle rolled Slezak/Giuliato 8-1, and the No. 3 pair of Irrarrazabal/Elduque downed Zukeran/Wu 8-2. The Sharks were denied a sweep as UHH's No. 2 team of Fillat/Figlia edged Erro/Loccisano in a tiebreaker 8-7 (7-5).
 
HPU won two of the six singles points with Gayte beating Giuliato 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 at No. 2, and 46th ranked Irrarrazabal winning at No. 4 over Fillat 6-2, 6-3.
 
UHH was led in singles by 17th ranked Slezak who beat 27th ranked Loccisano 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1, with Wu defeating Lyttle in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 at No. 3, Dell'Eva won in three over Erro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 5, with Zukeran defeating Elduque 6-2, 7-5.
 
The Sharks are now off for a few weeks before starting a five-match mainland road trip on March 8 at UC San Diego.