WAIKOLOA, Hawaii—In a battle of top 10 teams from the same state, visiting Hawai`i Pacific got the upper hand on Hawai`i Hilo on Sunday afternoon at the Mauna Lani Sports and Fitness Club, 5-2.

UH Hilo won the doubles point, but HPU captured all but one of the singles matches The Sharks won two of those singles bouts in three sets, and the Vulcans claimed one in extra time.

The Vulcans captured the doubles team point by winning 6-4 matches on courts two and three. Luca Checchia and Santiago Di Loreto topped Benjamin Loccisano and Marcel Hornung, while Arturo Dell`Eva and Alan Cincunegui did the same at No. 3 over Cheng-Chieh Wang and Ryohei Arai. Cincunegui hit a forehand winner down the line to clinch their match and the team win. On court one, HPU's Ondrej Ctverak and Matei Panik broke serve at 6-5 to win 7-5 over Martin Soukal and Chun En Wu.

Court one featured two of the top players in the PacWest in Loccisano and Soukal. Loccisano broke at 5-4 in the first set to take game one, and did the same late in the second set (6-4, 7-5).

Hornung won in three sets over Dell`Eva, as did HPU's Arai over Checchia. Di Loreto picked up UHH's lone singles win on court five.

The two rivals will meet again on March 13 in Honolulu.

UH Hilo now travels to Waco, Texas later this week for three matches, beginning with a Friday match versus SW Oklahoma State.

#9 Hawai`i Pacific 5, #10 UH Hilo 2
Singles competition
1. Benjamin Loccisano (HPU) def. Martin Soukal (UHH), 6-4, 7-5.
2. Ondrej Ctverak (HPU) def. Chun En Wu (UHH), 6-2, 6-3.
3. Marcel Hornung (HPU) def. Arturo Dell`Eva (UHH), 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
4. Ryohei Arai (HPU) def. Luca Checchia (UHH), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
5. Santiago Di Loreto (UHH) def. Matei Panik (HPU), 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
6. Cheng-Chieh Wang (HPU) def. Alan Cincunegui (UHH), 6-1, 6-1.

Singles order of finish: 6-2-1-3-4-5

Doubles competition
1. Ctverak/Panik (HPU) def. Soukal/En Wu (UHH), 7-5
2. Checchia/Di Loreto (UHH) def. Loccisano/Hornung (HPU), 6-4.
3. Dell `Eva/Cincunegui (UHH) def. Wang/Arai (HPU), 6-4.

Doubles order of finish: 3-1-2

Records: Hawai'i Hilo 0-2, Hawaii Pacific 4-3