KAILUA, Hawai'i – No. 9 Hawai'i Pacific University won four singles matches to overcome an early deficit to beat No. 11 Academy of Art 4-2 to win the NCAA Division II West Regional I at the Kailua Racquet Club on Tuesday.
 
The ninth ranked Sharks (14-5) advance to the Sweet 16 at the NCAA Division II National Championships at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla., next week. The season came to an end for the Urban Knights (14-6) who lost all three meetings against HPU this season.
 
The Urban Knights claimed the opening point in the nearly three hour match by winning the doubles point.
 
The fourth ranked ART U duo of twins Alma and Klara Thell-Lenntorp took advantage of early mistakes by the Sharks 21st ranked team of Elodie Busson and Elisa Elhadj at No. 1 to win 6-2. The Sharks countered at No. 2 as Mihoki Miyahara and Sarah Ikioka defeated Paula Alcantara and Taisiia Andrieieva 6-3. But at No. 3, ART U's Sofia Ragona and Maria Andrisani answered a few minutes later with a 6-3 win against HPU's Debora Echeverria and Heloise Le Normand 6-3 to claim the point.
 
HPU came back strong in the singles competition, winning all but one of the completed matches.
 
It started at No. 1 singles, as 34th ranked Busson took advantage of early service breaks to dominate 40th ranked Klara Thell-Lenntorp 6-2, 6-3 to tie the match at 1-1.
 
Within two minutes of the first point, the Sharks added a second as Miyahara won at No. 3 by ripping Andrieieva 6-1, 6-1 to take a 2-1 lead. Shark senior Le Normand pulled through at No. 6 by taking Alcantara 6-3, 6-2 for a 3-1 advantage.
 
But the Urban Knights made a move at No. 5 singles. Ragona overcame a 5-3 deficit to HPU's Ikioka in the first set to win in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-5), then ran through the second set 6-3 to pull ART U within a point 4-2.
 
The match would come down to No. 2 and No. 4 singles, as the teams split sets and moved to the third set.
 
The Sharks Elhadj took the first set against Alma Thell-Lenntorp 6-2, but Alma returned the favor in the second set 6-2 to knot the match. Elhadj broke Thell-Lenntorp twice on the way to a 3-0 lead in the third, but Alma held serve twice and broke the Shark to tie the set at 3-all.
 
Elhadj followed with a hold and a break to take a 5-3 lead, but Thell-Lenntorp answered with a break by winning the no-ad deciding point pulling the set to 5-4. Alma went up 30-Love before Elhadj collected two scores to tie the game at 30-all. On the ensuing point, Elhadj sent a volley return down the sideline that was called out by Thell-Lenntorp, but was overruled by the chair umpire putting Elhadj up 40-30.
 
Alma's second serve put the ball into play and Elhadj sent a rocket shot down the far side that couldn't be returned to give the Sharks the victory.
 
The No. 4 match went unfinished as HPU's Echeverria won set one 6-3, with ART U's Andrisani took the second 6-2. Echeverria led 2-1 when the match was won,
 
HPU advances to the Sweet 16 for the 13th straight year as the Sharks appear in their 21st NCAA Division II Tournament. HPU's opponent will be announce later this week after the national committee seeds the 16 teams advancing to the championship at Sanlando Park May 22-25.