HILO, Hawai'i – The No. 4 Hawai'i Pacific University men suffered their first loss of the season, falling to in-state rival Hawai'i Hilo 4-2 on Saturday afternoon at the UH Hilo Courts.
 
The fourth ranked Sharks (10-1), who hadn't played since March 16, took the doubles point from the Vulcans (7-8) but then shuffled their singles lineup after Jordi Walder, the No. 2 singles player in the country, was pulled from the top singles position after playing doubles.
 
HPU took the early lead as Jakub Beran and Robin Sanz won at No. 2 doubles over Joshua Liu and Luca Checchia 6-3, then the No. 21 duo of Jan Pleva and Jordi Walder took the No. 1 doubles spot over Luke Hamano and Martin Soukal 6-4. The unfinished No. 3 position was tight with Jan Heine and Benjamin Loccisano trailing UHH's Alession Demichelis and Luca Matheiowetz 5-4 when pulled.
 
But when Walder couldn't go for singles, the Sharks had to move everyone up a position. That put Pleva against UHH's fourth ranked Soukal at the No. 1 that Soukal took 6-1, 6-3 to tie the match at 1-1.
 
The Vulcans then got up 3-1 as Matheiowetz took No. 4 against Loccisano 6-4, 6-2, and Liu beat Heine 6-3, 6-3.
 
The Sharks had opportunities at the No. 2 and No. 6 positions. HPU's 44th ranked Sanz took the opening set against Demichelis 6-4, but Demichelis took the second set 7-6 in a tiebreaker. At the same time, Ethan Sherwood – playing in his first collegiate match for HPU – won the first set at No. 6 against Luca Petrikic 6-3, only to have Petrikic battle back to tie the position with a tiebreaker 7-6 win in the second set.
 
Sanz and Demichelis fought through the third set before Demichelis won the set and clinched the match 7-5. Sherwood led Demichelis 3-2 in the third when the match was called because of a travel curfew.
 
The Sharks are off again until Thursday, April 14 when they travel to the Winter Park, Fla., to face 19th ranked Rollins to start a Florida string of matches.