SURPRISE, Ariz. -- For the fourth year in a row, No. 2 Azusa Pacific is headed back to the Pacific West Conference tournament semifinals after racing to a 5-0 victory over No. 7 Hawai`i Hilo in under two hours on Thursday at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Club.

Match Results

Pascal Engel and Marnix Pluim were the first two singles players to finish their matches, clinching the match before the Vulcans had a chance to get on the board and sending the Cougars into a semifinal on Friday afternoon against No. 6 Concordia.

Azusa Pacific has now won 10 matches in a row this season, boosting the team's record to 18-3, while the Cougars now have an all-time record of 6-4 in the Cougars' four years participating in this tournament.

"It's always important to start off a tournament playing well," Engel said, "especially with a quick win at the beginning, because it's pretty hot weather here, so you don't want to be on court too long."

Just as they did less than a month ago, the Cougars swept the Vulcans in doubles without losing more than two games in any set. Shepherd Newcomb and Christian Schmidimproved their winning streak as a team to 11 matches and didn't drop a single game en route to their 8-0 triumph.

Jan Meyer and Olger van Gent improved to 10-2 as a pair this season following their 8-2 victory at No. 1 singles. Before that, Alan Leahy and Engel won 8-2 at NO. 2 doubles for their fifth win in six matches this season.

"We are really looking to play good tennis to get to the finals," Engel said. "If we can get there, we know anything can happen. The conditions of the courts feel really good and we've been to Surprise a couple years before, so we feel comfortable on court."

Meyer was one game away from winning at No. 1 with a 6-1, 5-0 lead when play was stopped. Schmid won the first set of his match at No. 2 singles 7-6(0). Leahy dropped the first set but was already ahead by a break at 2-0 in the second set. Van Gent won his first set and was on serve after two games in the second set of his match.