ALAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.—In a season filled with much success, the UH Hilo men's tennis team reached another milestone on Wednesday afternoon at the Sanlando Tennis Center.

For the first time in school history at the NCAA level, a Vulcan team has advanced to the national championship semi-finals. UH Hilo did so by defeating a tough University of South Carolina-Aiken team on a steamy Florida afternoon, 4-0 at the NCAA National Championships.

UH Hilo has five NAIA volleyball national titles to their credit, and the 2004 men's golf team finished fourth at the NCAA's, but the 2018-19 Vulcan tennis squad now gives the school its best opportunity at its first NCAA title.

The Vulcans will continue that quest on Thursday against Barry (Fla.). The match will begin at 7 a.m. Hawai`i time. 

Today's match was tense throughout, on a muggy 87-degree day.

The tension began with doubles play. The Vulcans won the first match on court one, taking down the sixth-ranked duo in the country in Antonio Sabugueiro and Salvador Bandeira, 6-3. The Czech Republic tandem of Vaclav Slezak and Martin Soukal got an early break to lead 4-1 before eventually topping a team that is now 17-6 on the year.

USC-Aiken evened things up on court three, cutting off a comeback by Alan Cincunegui and Luca Checchia. Alex Sklizovic and Francesco Satta had a 5-2 lead on the Vulcan duo before they rallied back to 5-4. The Pacer team then claimed the next game to win, 6-4.

That left the deciding point to be grappled for on court two. Chun En Wu and Alessandro Giuliato had 4-1 and 5-2 leads before the Pacer's Vincente Andrade and Tales Silva won three of the next four games to climb to 6-5. But the UHH sophomore team took the next game to claim the rubber match.

While Checchia was part of a tough loss in doubles, he was the first player on any court to post a singles win. He rolled through Satta, 6-1, 6-0, to give the Vulcans a 2-0 team lead. It was nearly 30 minutes later until UH Hilo got their next victory in the books when Slezak took down Silva, 6-1, 7-5 on court one.

It was then a race to the finish line then between Giuliato on court two and Arturo Dell`Eva on court five. Both were one game away from clinching the match, while Wu (court four) and Soukal (court three) had both split sets against their opponents.

Dell`Eva got there first with a 7-5, 6-4 win—while Giuliato's match went unfinished at 6-1, 5-4, as did Soukal's and Wu's in the third set.

The Vulcans have now won two matches at the national championships, another first. Last year, UH Hilo lost in the round of 16 to University of Indianapolis.

With Wednesday's win, the Vulcans improved to 15-4 on the year, while the Pacers' season ends at 19-4.

NCAA Division II National Men's Tennis Championships
Sanlando Park, Alamonte Springs, Florida
#4 Hawai`i Hilo 4, #5 USC-Aiken 0

Singles competition
1. #15 Vaclav Slezak (UHH) def. Tales Silva (USC-A), 6-1, 7-5.
2. #26 Alessandro Giuliato (UHH) vs. Salvador Bandeira (USC-A), 6-1, 5-4, UNF.
3. #47 Martin Soukal (UHH) vs. #48 Antonio Sabugueiro (USC-A), 2-6, 6-4, 1-0, UNF.
4. Chun En Wu (UHH) vs. Vincente Andrades (USC-A), 6-0, 3-6, 2-5, UNF.
5. Arturo Dell`Eva (UHH) def. Alvaro Garcia Gil (USC-A), 7-5, 6-4.
6. Luca Checchia (UHH) def. Francesco Satta (USC-A), 6-1, 6-0.

Singles order of finish: 6-1-5

Doubles competition
1. Slezak/Soukal (UHH) def. Sabugueiro/Bandeira (USC-A), 6-3.
2. Giuliato/En Wu (UHH) def. Andrades/Silva (USC-A), 7-5
3. Alex Sklizovic/Satta (USC-A) def. Checchia/Alan Cincunegui (UHH), 6-4.

Doubles order of finish: 1-3-2

Records: #4 Hawai'i Hilo 15-4, #5 USC-Aiken 19-4