SAN ANTONIO – Maxime Gayte won a three-set marathon over Alberto Diaz to lead No. 16 Hawai'i Pacific University to a 4-3 win over No. 17 Midwestern State (Texas) on Thursday at Annemarie Tennis Center.
 
The 16th ranked Sharks (8-1) handed the 17th ranked Mustangs (6-1) their first loss of the season.
 
The Sharks won the doubles point, but the Mustangs and Sharks swapped a pair of singles wins before Gayte broke the 3-3 tie with a 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 win at No. 5 singles.
 
Gayte and Valentin Masse got the match started with an upset win at No. 1 doubles, defeating the eighth ranked MSU doubles pair of Ben Westwick and Diaz 6-3 after the Sharks Benjamin Loccisano and Ondrej Ctverak beat Angel Palacios and Denney Norrie 6-3 to win the point. The No. 2 doubles position between Dillon Pineda and Nolan McCaig of MSU and HPU's Lukas Bauer and Cheng-Chieh Wang was unfinished at 5-4.
 
The Mustangs won the first two points in singles with Westwick besting Bauer 6-2, 6-3 at No. 6 and Pineda beating Ctverak 7-5, 6-4.
 
HPU came back to retake the lead 3-2 with a pair of three-set wins as Loccisano claimed the No. 4 spot over Alex Martinez-Roca 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, and Wang beat McCaig 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.
 
MSU followed by tying the match as Palacios edged No. 31 Masse in a tiebreaker at No. 1 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
 
That set up the win by Gayte for the match.
 
The Sharks face San Antonio's St. Mary's University on Friday in the Alamo city. First serve is scheduled for 4:30 a.m. HST (9:30 CDT).