KAILUA, O'ahu– The UH Hilo women's tennis team fell 4-3 to No. 13 Hawai'i Pacific on Monday night at the Kailua Racquet Club.
UH Hilo is now 2-4 overall while Hawai'i Pacific improved to 5-0, making HPU the early favorite in the West as they also beat No. 7 Azusa Pacific, No. 24 Biola, Concordia and Dominican.
The PacWest Conference's preseason favorite took the doubles point right away, winning 6-3 and 6-0 on courts one and two.
In singles play, the back courts gave Hawai'i Pacific a run for their money as the Vulcans received points on courts four, five and six.
Nanami Okamoto, Hikari Osaki, and Hannah Highsmith won on their respective courts.
Osaki and Okamoto went three sets deep against their Hawaii Pacific opponent.
Okamoto dropped the first set aganst HPU's Valentina Mokrova, but came back to win the next two 6-3 and 10-4.
Oskai beat HPU's Marta Ruszczynska in split set fashion. The first set was extremely competitive as Osaki downed Ruszczynska in a tiebreaker. The next set was all Ruszcynska as she came back to win 6-0. But when it was all said and done, Osaki came on top by winning the third set in extra time, 10-8. On court six, Hannah Highsmith won a very tight match (7-6, 6-4) over Olivia Kjaer in the final match of the evening.
Next match for UHH will be on Monday, March 14 where they will rematch Azusa Pacific at 8:30am HST in Azusa, California.
#13 Hawai`i Pacific 4, UH Hilo 3
Kailua Racquet Club, Kailua, O`ahu
SINGLES
1. Shaline Pipa (HPU) def. C. Alfonsin (UHH), 6-2, 6-1.
2. Elodie Busson (HPU) def. S. Dafincescu (UHH), 6-0, 6-2.
3. Marlene Tilgner (HPU) def. J. Barden (UHH), 6-2, 6-0.
4. N. Okamoto (UHH) def. Valentina Mokrova (HPU), 4-6, 6-3, 10-4.
5. H. Osaki (UHH) def. Marta Ruszczynska (HPU), 7-6, 0-6, 10-8.
6. H. Highsmith (UHH) def. Olivia Kjaer (HPU), 7-6, 6-4.
Order of Finish: 2-1-3-5-4-6
DOUBLES
1. Pipa/Tilgner (HPU) def. Alfonsin/Highsmith (UHH), 6-3.
2. Busson/ Mihoki Miyahara (HPU) def. Barden/Okamoto (UHH), 6-0.
3. Mokrova/Ruszczynska (HPU) vs. Osaki/A. Ichikawa (UHH). 5-3, UNF.
Order of Finish: 2-1
TEAM RECORDS
#13 Hawai`i Pacific 5-0, UH Hilo 2-4
