SAN RAFAEL, California – The Hawai'i Hilo Women's Tennis team fired out to a 1-0 start after taking down Dominican, 4-3, Saturday morning at the Castellucci Family Tennis Center.
Freshman Hana Hofmanova delivered the match-clinching point with a 6-3 victory in the deciding Game 3 on Court 6.
The Vulcans climbed out of a 1-0 hole after losing the doubles point with singles victories from Hikari Osaki (Court 3), Satoho Toriumi (Court 4) and Julia Barden (Court 5) to take a 3-1 advantage. Nanami Okamoto was narrowly defeated on Court 2 before Hofmanova sealed up the match win to hand the Penguins their first loss on the early season.
McKenna Mountain also narrowly fell in three sets at the No. 1 spot.
In earlier doubles play, Barden and Lehua Jordan came out victorious, 6-2, on Court 3 to even the score.
SINGLES WINS
3. [UHH] H. Osaka def. [DUC] M. Gavrilov — (6-2, 6-1)
4. [UHH] S. Toriumi def. [DUC] D. Vanaraja — (6-2, 6-2)
5. [UHH] J. Barden def. [DUC] Z. Coggins — (6-2, 6-3)
6. [UHH] H. Hofmanova def. [DUC] A. Craig — (6-1, 4-6, 6-3)
DOUBLES WINS
3. [UHH] J. Barden + L. Jordan def. [DUC] H. Garcia + Z. Coggins — (6-2)
UP NEXT
Hawai'i Hilo moved to 1-0 overall while Dominican moved to a 4-1 record.
The two teams will meet again next weekend on O'ahu at Patsy T. Mink Central O'ahu Regional Park on March 3.
The Vulcans continue their season-opening slate in Northern California against Stanislaus State (Feb. 25) and Academy of Art (Feb. 26).
Pacific West Conference Championship is set for April 17-20 at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex in Arizona.
