SURPRISE, Ariz. – The No. 4 Hawai'i Pacific University men's slow start cost them in the PacWest Conference Championship match on Saturday, as No. 16 Azusa Pacific withstood a comeback attempt to pull out a 4-3 victory at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex.
 
The fourth ranked Sharks (16-2) lost the doubles point to the 16th ranked Cougars (19-4) to put the Sharks behind the eight-ball.
 
The Cougars upset the Sharks at No. 1 as 20th ranked Leyton Bohren and Ryan Nuno stunned fifth ranked Jan Pleva and Jordi Walder 6-2, then took the No. 3 spot as Sam Sippel and Ethan Smith beat HPU's Jan Heine and Benjamin Loccisano 6-3. The unfinished No. 2 spot had 40th ranked Jakub Beran and Robin Sanz ahead of  Elias Emilo Walter and Miha Velicki 5-3.
 
The Sharks answered quickly to tie the match at 1-1 when second ranked Walder beat 10th ranked Nuno 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1. But the Cougars quickly scored again as Walter won at No. 4 against Beran 6-4, 6-2 and retook the lead when 49th ranked Sippel beat Pleva 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 to go up 3-1.
 
The Sharks countered as Loccisano won at No. 5 over Velicki 6-2, 1-6, 6-2, then Heine beat Ivan Noel Hornung 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to knot the score at 3-3.
 
The match hung on the balance of the No. 3 singles spot. HPU's 23rd ranked Sanz had taken the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-1), and led most of the second set until Bohren tied the second set at 6-6 to send it to a tiebreaker. Sanz went up 6-3 in the breaker only to have Bohren come back to take the tiebreaker 8-6. In the final set, Bohren jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. Sanz battled back to get the match to 5-4 with both teams surrounding the court. Bohren came through in the final game to upset Sanz 6-4 and give APU the championship in their first victory in three matches against HPU this year.
 
The Sharks, ranked first in the West Region all season long, will now wait for the NCAA Division II Tennis Committee to determine their position in the Division II Tournament. The selection announcement is scheduled for May 3.