SAN DIEGO – The 10th ranked Hawai'i Pacific University men picked up their second straight win on their California road trip, beating Point Loma 5-2 on Friday at the PLNU Tennis Courts.
The Sharks (3-2) swept through the doubles flights to score the opening point, the claimed four of the six singles positions against the Sea Lions (4-8) to take the victory.
HPU picked up its first win at No. 2 doubles with
Felix Einig and
Cheng-Chieh Wang beating Alejandro Castaneda and Lukas Schuster 7-5, then winning the point at No. 3 as
Kilian Maitre and
Ryohei Arai downed Jasdeep Paintal and David Strassburger 7-5. The Sharks made it a sweep with the No. 1 spot, as
Benjamin Loccisano and
Marcel Hornung needed a tiebreaker to get Yuki Okamoto and Tyler Davis 7-6 (7-5).
The match got interesting early in singles, as Point Loma won at No. 4 with Casteneda taking down Arai 6-3, 6-3 to tie the match. HPU answered with Hornung winning at No. 5 over Schuster 6-0, 7-5, followed by Einig beating Okamoto 6-2, 6-4 for a 3-2 lead.
Davis pulled PLNU within a point by winning the No. 1 position over Loccisano 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), but the Sharks won the match at No. 6 singles when Wang defeated Paintal 6-4, 7-5. HPU added the victory lap with the win at No. 3 as Maitre needed three sets to beat Strassburger 7-6 (7-6), 3-6, 6-4.
HPU now has a showdown on Saturday. The No. 10 Sharks face No. 7 Azusa Pacific at APU's Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex. First serve is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. HST (2:30 p.m. PDT).
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