KOHALA COAST, Hawai`i--After eight hours of tennis, with a slight linner break and another to figure out how to get the lights on, #5 ranked Hawai`i Pacific slipped away with a 4-2 win over #20 Hawai`i HIlo on Sunday night at the Fairmont Orchid Resort Tennis Center.

That gave the Sharks and Vulcans a split in a pair of big matches to open the 2020-21 season. Earlier on Sunday, the Vulcans defeated the Sharks 5-2 in a battle of two of the top teams in the west region.

The Sharks began the match by taking the all-important doubles point. They gained revenge on court one when James Hartson and Matej Panik topped Martin Soukal and Alessio Demichelis 7-5. Earlier, the Vulcans pair had won 6-3. HPU also got the win at No. 3 with Kilian Maitre and Felix Einig topping Chun En Wu and Joshua Liu, which was flipped earlier in the first match when the Vulcan pair won in a tiebreaker.

In singles, UHH's Soukal easlly won his second match of the day on court one (6-0, 6-3), same story for Demichelis on court two (6-1, 6-0). Maitre won on court four for the Sharks to even the team score at 2-2.

Those three matches were over quickly compared to the other three. In a trio of knock-down, dragout battles, Hartson prevailed in a physical match over Liu, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) to give the Sharks a 3-2 margin. With darkness falling and the other two matches both in the third set, the key to the lights was eventually found and play resumed on courts three and six. Playing his first collegiate match, UHH freshman Luca Matheiowetz had a pair of match points with a 5-4 lead in the third, but HPU's Cheng-Chieh Wang fought those off and came back to win the next three games to clinch his match and the Shark victory. 

The court three slugfest between Luca Checchia and Einig ended in a draw (unfinished) with the two tied at 4-4 in the third.

The Vulcans now get a well-deserved rest, but for how long is the question. They are schedule to travel to California in early March, pandemic permitting. 

#5 Hawai`i Pacific 4, #20 UH Hilo 2
Fairmont Orchid Resort Tennis Center, Kohala Coast, Hawai`i (Match 2 of day)
Singles competition
1. Martin Soukal (UHH) def. Matej Panik (HPU), 6-0, 6-3.
2. Alessio Demichelis (UHH) def. Ryohei Arai (HPU), 6-1, 6-0.
3. Luca Checchia (UHH) vs. Felix Einig (HPU), 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 4-4, UNF
4. Kilian Maitre (HPU) def. Chun En Wu (UHH), 6-1, 6-3. 
5. James Hartson (HPU) def. Joshua Liu (UHH), 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
6. Cheng-Chieh Wang (HPU) def. Luca Matheiowetz (UHH), 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Singles order of finish: 2-4-1-5-6-UNF

Doubles competition
1. Hartson/Panik (HPU) def. Soukal/Demichelis (UHH), 7-5.
2. Loccisano/Arai (HPU) vs. Checchia/Di Loreto (UHH), 5-5, UNF.
3. Maitre/Einig (HPU) def. En Wu/Liu (UHH) 6-4.
Doubles order of finish: 1-3-UNF
Records: Hawai'i Hilo 1-1, Hawaii Pacific 1-1