KAILUA, Hawai'i – No. 10 Hawai'i Pacific University lost a heartbreaker on Thursday afternoon as No. 14 Hawai'i Hilo came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat HPU 4-3 in action at the Kailua Racquet Club.
 
The Sharks (1-2) lost the doubles point to the Vulcans (5-2) but won three of the top four singles matches to hold a 3-2 lead with two matches left.
 
It was the fifth and sixth positions that won it for the Vulcans.
 
Luca Matheowetz tied the match for UH Hilo a 3-3 with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over HPU's Marcel Hornung at No. 6.
 
Then the Vulcans Joshua Liu outlasted HPU's Cheng-Chieh Wang at No. 5 in a match that featured two-tiebreakers. Wang beat Liu in the first set 7-6 (10-8), but Liu came back 6-4 in the second. The final set went back and forth before Liu prevailed 7-6 (7-1) to win the point and the match.
 
The Sharks were down 1-0 after doubles, winning only at No. 2 as Felix Eining and Wang beat Alessio DeMichelis and Chun En Wu 6-0. But HPU's No. 1 doubles pair of Benjamin Loccisano and Ryohei Arai fell 6-1 to Martin Soukal and Santiago Loreto, and the No. 3 duo of Kilian Maitre and Marcel Hornung dropped a similar 6-1 result to Liu and Luca Cecchia.
 
HPU came back strong at the top of the singles lineup, as Loccisano was triumphant at No. 1 singles over 33rd ranked Soukal 6-1, 6-1 and Eining handed DeMichelis a 6-0, 6-4 loss. Maitre won at No. 4 over Checchia 6-1, 6-4, but Arai fell at No. 3 to En Wu 6-1, 6-2 to put HPU up 3-2 heading into the last two positions.
 
The Sharks, who were playing for the first time since Valentine's Day, now prepare for a stretch on the mainland starting next week. HPU visits Biola at La Mirada, Calif., on April 15 for the first of three matches heading into the PacWest Conference Championships in Surprise, Ariz., April 22-24.