AZUSA, Calif. -- Just 11 days after meeting in the season opener for both teams, Hawai'i Pacific repeated its narrow victory over Azusa Pacific, only this time by an even thinner margin as the Sharks held off a determined comeback from the Cougars in the second half to win by just 62 hundredths of a point after winning by 82-hundredths in the season opener.

Both teams scored a season-high, as Azusa Pacific added nearly 6.5 points to its season-opening score with a performance that netted a final score of 281.560, while HPU also scored over six points better than the season opener with a score of 282.175.

The Cougars trailed by 2.75 points at halftime after Hawai'i Pacific was practically flawless in the acro and pyramid events. In fact, the Sharks scored all 29.80 points of its starting value in the pyramid event, scoring 9.80 points in the inversion heat with a start value of 9.80 before registering back-to-back perfect-10s in the synchronized and open heats.

After halftime, Azusa Pacific chipped away four-tenths of a point in the toss event, winning two of the three heats and posting a score of 9.85 in the open toss heat. That momentum carried into the tumbling event, where the Cougars won all six heats to erase another 1.275 points from the HPU lead. Ashleigh Pitts scored 9.85 in the aerial pass, and she was followed by Courtney Moser's 9.625 in the six-element tumbling pass. Heather Hovander wrapped up the impressive tumbling performance by scoring 9.875 in the open tumbling pass.

That pulled the Cougars within 1.075 points of the Sharks heading into the team event, and although Azusa Pacific's strong finish of 100.51 points was better than HPU's 100.05 score, it wasn't enough to complete the comeback.

Azusa Pacific drops to 0-2 on the season and returns to action with a March 6 visit to Fairmont State (W.Va.).