SURPRISE, Ariz. – No. 2 Hawai'i Pacific University opened play in the 2018 PacWest Conference Championships in quick fashion, beating Stanislaus State (Calif.) 5-0 on Thursday morning in quarterfinal action at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Center.
 
The No. 2 Sharks (16-2) are the tournament's top seed and needed a hair over two hours to beat the ninth-seeded Warriors (8-12).
 
The Sharks swept the doubles competition before picking up two singles points to end the match. HPU had leads in the other four matches on the court.
 
HPU's Lena Lutzeier and Oceane Adam, ranked ninth in doubles by the ITA, had little trouble in defeating SSU's Cassidy Ferrell and Kayla Nguyen 8-1 at No. 1. The Sharks Lara Meccico and Barbora Kijasova also won 8-1 at No. 2 over Megan Hagerty and Taylor Galya. Leticia Gonzalez dos Santos and Debora Echeverria won at No. 3 against Ebone Qualls and Miliaana Proft 8-3.
 
In singles, ninth ranked Meccico shut out Nguyen 6-0, 6-0 to win at No. 2, just ahead of 22nd ranked Adam over Proft 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3 to win the match.
 
The nation's top singles player, Lutzeier, had taken set one from 47th ranked Ferrell 6-2 and tied 1-1 when the match was called.
 
The Sharks advance to the PacWest Conference semifinals on Friday to meet No. 23 Point Loma. PLNU was a 5-1 winner over Sonoma State in quarterfinal play on Thursday. The semifinal is set for 6 a.m. HST (9 a.m. MST) at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Center.