(photo of Joshua Liu courtesy of HPU's Texas Powers)

KAILUA, Oahu--Thursday's UH Hilo and Hawai`i Pacific's men's tennis match at the Kailua Racquet Club was tied at 3-3 late into the day, and that's how it would stay for awhile while a Shark and a Vulcan slugged it out on court five in the deciding bout.

With all of their teammates watching, UHH's Liu won out in a third set tiebreaker, besting HPU's Cheng-Chieh Wang 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 7-6 (7-1). That turned the victory over to the Vulcans, 4-3, giving them the rubber match win over the Sharks to improve to 5-2 on the season, HPU, whose only matches thus far have been against the Vulcans, fell to 1-2.

The win was big for UHH in terms of seeding in the Pacific West Conference Championships later this month. The Sharks still have a chance to strengthen their case when they travel to southern California for matches just prior to the tournament, where they will face likely No. 1 seed Azusa Pacific among other strong PacWest teams.

The victory for the Vulcans came on a day when fresh ITA national rankings came out, with UHH already upsetting that apple cart. APU is listed at No. 7, Hawaii Pacific No. 10, UH Hilo No. 14 and Concordia is No. 16. 

Last February, the Vulcans and Sharks squared off in a couple of close matches on the same day, with UHH winning 5-2 in the first match and HPU taking the nightcap, 4-2. In those matches, whomever took the doubles point would go on to win the match. Today was no different.

UH Hilo mixed up their doubles combinations, and it paid off on paper. Martin Soukal and Santiago Di Loreto played together for the first time this season and won on court one over Benjamin Loccisano and Rychai Arai, 6-1. HPU won the court two match, but Liu and Luca Checchia captured third doubles 6-1 to give UHH a 1-0 lead heading into singles.

They would definitely need that point. Loccisano, who Soukal defeated in February, rolled through his UHH counterpart this time on court one, 6-1, 6-1. Chun En Wu gave the lead back to UHH with a 6-1, 6-2 win on court three, but the Sharks evened the team score 2-2 when Felix Eining won on court two over Alessio Demichelis, 6-0, 6-4.

UHH fell behind 3-2 when Checchia lost at No. 4 to Killian Maitre (6-1, 6-4), leaving the final tally to courts six and five. Both of those matches went three sets.

The Vulcans kept the door open when Luca Matheowetz battled back to win on court six over Marcel Hornung, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Tied at 3-3, it came down to Liu and Wang. Liu, the lefty transfer from Sonoma State, dropped a marathon first set tiebreaker (8-10), won a tight second set (6-4) and then rolled in the third set tiebreaker (7-1) to clinch the match. Liu had lost both of his singles matches in February against HPU, and Matheowetz has lost a three-setter to HPU as well.

UH Hilo now will get ready for the PacWest championships, set for April 21-24 in Surprise, Arizona.

#14 UH Hilo 4, #10 Hawaii Pacific 3
Kailua Racquet Club, Kailua, Hawaii
Singles competition
1. Benjamin Loccisano (HPU) def. Martin Soukal, 6-1, 6-1.
2. Felix Eining (HPU) def. Alessio Demichelis (UHH), 6-0, 6-4.
3. Chun En Wu (UHH) def. Rychei Arai (HPU), 6-1, 6-2.
4. Kilian Maitre (HPU) def. Luca Checchia (UHH), 6-1, 6-4.
5. Joshua Liu (UHH) def. Cheng-Chieh Wang (HPU), 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 7-6 (7-1).
6. Luca Matheiowetz (UHH) def. Marcel Hornung (HPU), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Singles order of finish: 1-3-2-4-6-5.

Doubles competition
1. Soukal/Di Loreto (UHH) def. Loccisano/Arai (HPU), 6-1.
2. Eining/Wang (HPU) def. Demichelis/Wu (UHH), 6-0.
3. Checchia/Liu (UHH) def. Maitre/Hornung (HPU), 6-1.
Doubles order of finish: 2-3-1

Records: #14 UHH 5-2, #10 HPU 1-2