SURPRISE, Ariz. – No. 11 and second-seeded Hawai'i Pacific University defended its PacWest Conference Championship on Saturday, defeating No. 9 Academy of Art 4-1 in the championship match of the 2019 PacWest Conference Championships at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex.
 
The 11th ranked Sharks (13-5) claim the conference automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament with the second win against the Urban Knights (14-5) this season.
 
Unlike the earlier match this season, the Sharks threw the first haymaker by winning the doubles point. HPU's No. 2 pair of Mihoki Miyahara and Sara Ikioka beat Taisiia Andrieieva and Paula Alcantara 6-1. Then came the big win at No. 1 as the Sharks' 40th ranked duo of Elodie Busson and Elisa Elhadj upset ART U's third ranked twins of Klara and Alma Thell-Lenntorp 6-4 to claim the point. The No. 3 pairs of Debora Echeverria and Heloise Le Normand were tied with Maria Andrisani and Sofia Ragona 4-4 when the point was won.
 
The Sharks got up 3-0 during singles action as Ikioka won at No. 5 over Ragona 6-4, 6-2, seconds before Miyahara downed Andrieieva 6-3, 6-2.
 
But the Urban Knight's weren't going down without a fight, winning the No. 2 flight with Alma Thell-Lenntorp taking a tiebreaker on the way to beating Elhadj 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. ART U also force another tiebreaker and two more singles matches into a third set in the 90-degree-plus heat.
 
But while watching battles at the No. 1 and No. 4 positions, it was No. 6 that gave the Sharks their second straight title. Le Normand fell in the first set to Alcantara 1-6, but came back to beat the Urban Knight 6-1 in the second set. The HPU junior from Matignon, France/CNED France, swapped games with Alcantara before going up 3-2. After that Le Normand controlled the match, winning the next four games and clinching the Sharks title with a 6-4 victory.
 
In the unfinished match at the top position, 26th ranked Busson and 39th ranked Klara Thell-Lenntorp split sets with ART U's Thell-Lentorp taking the first set 6-3 and HPU's Busson the second 6-4. Thell-Lenntorp held a 4-2 lead when the match called. The Sharks were down at No. 4, with Anrdisani winning a tiebreaker in the first set 7-6 (7-5) over Echeverria, and holding a 3-0 advantage at a changeover when the match was won.
 
The Sharks women, who won their first PacWest Conference Championship in 2018, got the repeat and for the first time in school history, joined the HPU men as 2019 PacWest Champs.
 
For her tremendous play during the week, junior Mihoki Miyahara of Tosu City, Japan/Aomori Yamada, was named the PacWest Tournament Most Outstanding Player.
 
The Sharks are off until the NCAA Division II Tournament. They learn their opponent for a regional match on May 7, when the NCAA Tournament selections are announced. The NCAA Division II Women's West Regional match will be played May 13 or 14.