SURPRISE, Ariz. – The No. 14 Hawai'i Pacific University women left no doubt as to the top team in the region with a powerful 5-1 triumph against No. 5 Azusa Pacific on Saturday morning in the championship match of the NCAA Division II West Regional at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex.
 
The second-seeded Sharks (9-3) made sure the third time was the charm against the top-seeded Cougars (16-3). HPU advances to the NCAA Division II National Championship and the Elite Eight May 19-21 back in Surprise.
 
APU had beaten HPU in two previous meetings, including the PacWest Conference Championship match two weeks ago, but both had been as the third match in three days.
 
The Sharks started by doing something they didn't in the previous meetings, winning the doubles point to set the tone for the match.
 
Azusa won at No. 3 doubles with Courtney Page and Madison Kane defeating Nicole Ballach and Marta Ruszczynska 6-1. HPU came right back at No. 2 as Elodie Busson and Valentina Mokrova downed Carolyn Brooner and Jacky Wagner 6-3.
 
That left the point to the No. 1 duos. HPU's 22nd ranked pair of Marleen Tilgner and Mihoki Miyahara then upset eighth ranked Petra Ivankovic and Anna Savchenko 6-4 to take a 1-0 lead for the Sharks.
 
Singles saw 11th ranked Tilgner waste no time in beating 12th ranked Ivankovic at the top 6-2, 6-1 to go up 2-0. No. 3 singles followed with Miyahara stunning 39th ranked Wagner 7-5, 6-0 for the 3-0 lead.
 
The rest of the singles split and were decided in three sets.
 
Azusa Pacific scored its only point at No. 5, when Kane came back against Ruszczynska for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win, making the score 3-1.
 
On No. 2, 17th ranked Busson lost the first set to Savchenko in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-4), but rallied to take the second set 6-3. At No. 6 HPU's Ballach won the first set against Audrey Stewart 6-0, but lost the second 7-5.
 
The two HPU players took the early command of their final sets and seemed to race to get the clinching point. As it turned out, they both did.
 
Busson beat Savchenko 6-3 as Ballach finished off Stewart 6-2 for a rare 5-1 win in the championships.
 
HPU was also in the third set at No. 5 where Mokrova won the first set against Brooner 7-5, lost the second 6-1, and was down 2-1 in the third when the match was halted.
 
The Sharks advance to the Elite Eight for the fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament and for the eighth time in nine tournaments under Coach Lauren Conching. HPU has advanced to the every national tournament in Conching's tenure, as there was no 2020 NCAA Championship due to the Covid pandemic.