Surprise, Ariz.-- In a hard fought match, the No. 18 Azusa Pacific men's tennis team fell to No. 17 Hawai'i Hilo in today's PacWest conference tournament semifinal match. After being the only team to take down the Vulcans in regular season play, the Cougars came up short overall 1-4. 

Updated Men's PacWest Tournament Bracket

The Vulcans started doubles out on fire, as Hawai'i Hilo's Vaciav Slezak and Martin Soukal downed APU's Jakob Schnaitter and Jesse Haas at the No. 1 position 6-4. At court three, the tandem of Ethan Smith and Marnix Pluim dropped another 6-4 decision to give Hawai'i Hilo one point on the board before heading into singles.

 Heading into singles, No. 22 Jakob Schnaitter notched a 6-4, 6-1 win at the top spot over No. 9 Vaclav Slezak to give APU its first point of the day. After defeating Slezak for the second time this year, Schnaitter holds on to his title as he remains undefeated against PacWest players.

The remaining singles matches were long fought battles, and Arturo Dell'eva for Hawai'i Hilo was next to finish as he won in bots sets 6-4 at the No. 5 spot over Dillon Barnard. Two of the top freshman in the tournament faced each other at court three, where Martin Soukal notched a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) victory over APU's Leyton Bohren. With a 3-1 lead, Luca Checchia clinched the match over Marnix Pluim at the No. 6 position 6-4, 6-8, 6-3 to book its spot for the Vulcans in the PacWest Championship match on Saturday.

The Cougars will head to the consolation match for third place in the Pacific West Tournament against Concordia at 9:00 a.m.