HILO, Hawai`i—The UH Hilo men's tennis team enjoyed a home court advantage for the final time this season, defeating Carleton College 9-0 on Tuesday afternoon at the UHH tennis courts.

In theory, close matches and games should go the home teams' way, and they did today. Although the score was a whitewash, four of the nine matches were extremely close and could have gone either direction. With the win, the Vulcans improved to 6-8 on the season while the NCAA Division III Knights fell to 7-3.

The No. 1 doubles match was perhaps the tightest, with UHH's Vaclav Slezak and Stefan Coney engaged with CC's Ezra Frankel and Aaron Goodman. The Vulcan duo battled back from an 8-7 deficit to defeat the Knights' tandem, 9-8 (7-5). The Vulcans won the other two doubles matches with ease, with Bruno Figlia and Alex Fillat Perez rolling 8-2 on court two, and Daniel Tada and Gregory Zukeran doing the same at No. 3, 8-3.

In singles, Slezak (6-0, 6-1) and Fillat Perez (6-1, 6-2) cruised on the first two courts, as did Dillon Lam at No. six (6-1, 6-3). The three other singles matches took much more time. Zukeran had to fight back after losing the first set to defeat Patton McClelland at No. 3 singles, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-3. Figlia had a battle at No. 4 before edging Goodman, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, and Ryuta Ogawa almost had to go to a third set before surviving Sahil Chhugani, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).

The Vulcans now hit the road for their next nine matches, covering northern and southern California. Next up is a March 26 match against Sonoma State, played at the Castellucci Tennis Center in San Rafael.

UH HILO 9, CARLETON 0
Singles
1. Vaclav Slezak (UHH) def. Kevin Mei (CC), 6-0, 6-1.
2. Alex Fillat Perez (UHH) def. Jordan O'Kelly (CC), 6-1, 6-2.
3. Gregory Zukeran (UHH) def. Patton McClelland (CC), 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-3.
4. Bruno Figlia (UHH) def. Aaron Goodman (CC), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
5. Ryuta Ogawa (UHH) def. Sahil Chhugani (CC), 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).
6. Dillon Lam (UHH) def. Mark Conrad (CC), 6-1, 6-3.
Doubles
1. Slezak/Stefan Coney (UHH) def. Goodman/Ezra Frankel (CC), 9-8 (7-5).
2. Figlia/Fillat Perez (UHH) def. Mei/O'Kelly (CC), 8-2.
3. Daniel Tada/Zukeran (UHH) def. Chhugani/Kevin Hurley (CC), 8-3.