KAILUA-KONA, Hawai`i—In the midst of a historic year, the Hawai`i Hilo men's tennis team hopes to make more history on Monday.
The Vulcans will play Point Loma on Monday afternoon (2 pm) at the Holua Tennis Center in a NCAA Preliminary Round match, with the winner advancing to the final 16-team national tournament field at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Center in Arizona, May 9-12.
UH Hilo tennis teams have qualified before for this round of west region qualification, but not since the west region has expanded to include powerhouses like Azusa Pacific and Point Loma, who are the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds respectively this year. The PacWest expanded in 2012 to include the Cougars and Sea Lions, along with Fresno Pacific and California Baptist. They have also since added Concordia and Biola, further bolstering an already powerful conference and west region.
The Vulcans, with a 16-2 record, have never worked through that kind of competition to earn a No. 2 seed in the west. And they are one win away from heading to the national tournament site for what is thought to be only the second time in school history.
"I think we qualified one other time, in the late 1990's," said former head coach and current associate athletic director
Kula Oda. "We have been in this regional a few times, but not with a record as good as this current team has."
Even though a UH Hilo tennis record book is nowhere to be located, Oda can be pretty sure that the Vulcans haven't had a record similar to 16-2. "We always have had to play through Hawai`i Pacific and BYU-Hawaii to get anywhere," he said. "HPU has had a national championship caliber team almost every year, and BYU-Hawaii was right there as well."
This year, BYU-Hawaii is no longer a player (they eliminated athletics last year) and the Sharks were down.
Regardless, it hasn't seemed to matter who the Vulcans are playing this season. They have only one loss to a Division II team, the Cougars, in the final of the PacWest tournament. But they defeated the Cougars in March and in total have wins over eight nationally ranked teams this season. That includes three No. 1 seeds in this weekend's regional tournaments—Azusa Pacific, Indianapolis and Midwestern State.
The Vulcans have been especially tough in doubles. The No. 1 team of
Vaclav Slezak and
Alessandro Giuliato are 15-3 and have a victory over the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the country from Azusa Pacific. The No. 2 squad of
Alex Fillat Perez and
Bruno Figlia is 12-6 and on court three
Gregory Zukeran and
Chun En Wu are 15-3.
In singles (in court order) Slezak is 13-4, Giuliato 16-2, Wu 10-4, Perez 10-6, Arturo Dell`eva 9-4 and Zukeran 8-4. There are no weak links.
The Vulcans will face a talented Sea Lion team that is 14-9 this year. UH Hilo beat PLNU 6-3 in late March, but the two teams split the singles matches. This is Point Loma's first NCAA tournament berth, securing their seed with wins over UC San Diego, Sonoma State and Concordia. They have four seniors on the team, led by No. 1 Thomas Dafcik, who is 17-5 this year in singles and defeated Slezak when they met in San Diego.
"Nearly every match we have played this year has been tough," said UH Hilo head coach
Tina McDermott. "That was in some ways by design. We have proven to be match-tough, and our preparation all year long in practice and matches have brought us to this point. The guys are hungry and won't be satisfied with anything short of getting back to Arizona and playing for a national championship."
You can follow the results of the matches on the Vulcan twitter site, and also on Insta-Story on the Vulcan Instagram account.
Twitter.com/HiloVulcans
Instagram.com/HiloVulcans
