OKLAHOMA CITY – No. 9 Hawai'i Pacific University fell to No. 2 Columbus State (Ga.) 4-0 in the semifinals of the inaugural ITA Division II National Indoor Team Championships on Saturday at the Oklahoma City Tennis Center.
 
The Sharks (5-4) fought hard but dropped the doubles point to the Cougars (6-0), who then claimed the middle singles positions to sweep the match.
 
HPU looked good to start in doubles play against CSU. The Sharks Ondrej Ctverak and Matej Panik beat Alvaro Regalado/Javier Cueto Ramos 6-4 at No. 1. The Cougars evened the doubles with a win at No. 3 as Tommaso Schold/Pietro Martinetti defeated Royhei Arai and Cheng-Chieh Wang 6-4. The No. 2 position came down to a tiebreaker, with the Columbus State duo of Matei Avram/Christian Garay edging HPU's Marcel Hornung and Benjamin Loccisano 7-6 (7-5) that gave the Cougars the point.
 
Columbus State controlled the middle of the lineup to win, with Garay taking No. 3 over HPU's Hornung 6-2, 6-3, just before Ramos dumped Arai 6-1, 6-3 to take a 3-0 advantage.
 
The No. 5 position clinched the match as Schold needed a first set tiebreaker win to outdistance the Sharks Panik 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
 
The three unfinished singles positions had all split sets. At No. 1, HPU's No. 44 Loccisano won the first set in a tiebreak 7-6 (7-4) over No. 2 Regalado, with Regalado taking the second 6-1 before the match was called. At No. 2 singles, Ctverak and Fabien Asdrubal split 2-6, 6-1 with Asdrubal up 3-0  when called. And at No. 6 Wang and Avram split 6-2, 3-6 when the match was halted.
 
HPU moves to the third place match on Sunday where they meet No. 3 West Florida, who lost to No. 1 Barry (Fla.) 4-2 on Saturday in the other semifinal. The match is the last of the tournament, set for 1:30 p.m. HST (5:30 p.m. CST) at the Oklahoma City Tennis Center.