AZUSA, Calif. -- The No. 11-ranked Azusa Pacific men's tennis team took its first defeat of the season in an exciting down-to-the-wire match at home, falling to No. 16-ranked Hawai'i Pacific, 5-2, on Tuesday afternoon. The Sharks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the match before the Cougars snagged back-to-back wins in singles to draw even. Azusa Pacific's first loss of the season dropped the Cougars to 8-1 on the year.

Doubles: Doubles play was a tight affair with Hawai'i Pacific coming up with the opening victory on a 6-1 decision over Ryan Nuno and Leyton Bohren at the No. 2 position. The Cougars fired right back with a 6-1 win on court three by Ethan Smith and Ronald Kang to put all eyes on court one. There, the Sharks clinched the first point of the day with a 7-5 victory over Jesse Haas and Jakob Schnaitter.

Singles: Facing a 1-0 deficit after doubles, Azusa Pacifci looked to battle back in singles, but Hawai'i Pacific snatched its second point of the day at the No. 4 spot with Benjamin Loccisano's 6-2, 6-2 win over Leyton Bohren. The early spark for the Cougars came from Ryan Nuno at the No. 2 positon with a 6-3, 6-2 victory. At the top spot, Jakob Schnaitter followed soon after with a 6-4, 6-2 win to tie the match, 2-2.

The Sharks stood their ground in the remaining three matches, with Maxime Gayte winning at No. 5 over Jesse Haas, 6-3, 6-4, before Lukas Bauer clinched the team win with a victory at the No. 6 position over Dillon Barnard 7-5, 6-2. The teams played out the third set of the remaining match, as Ronald Kang was edged in a pair of tiebreakers at the No. 3 slot by Cheng-Chieh Wang, first in the opening set and again in the third-set super tiebreaker of a 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 10-6 defeat.

What's Next: The Cougars will return to action on Saturday, March 9 against Sonoma State at 2:30 p.m.