SURPRISE, Ariz. – For the third year in a row, the PacWest Championships final featured Azusa Pacific and Hawai`i Pacific, and for the first time the Sharks topped the Cougars with a 4-2 win on Saturday at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Club.
 
With the win, Hawai`i Pacific improves to 12-7 on the season and earns the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA West Regional. Azusa Pacific drops to 21-5 and is expected to be the No. 2 seed in the regional tournament. In PacWest finals, Azusa Pacific now has a 2-1 record, while Hawai`i Pacific improves to 3-17.
 
Just like the previous two years that the PacWest's top-2 teams met in the final, it came down to a singles match between a Cougar and Mihoki Miyahara. In 2021, Jacky Wagner came up with a memorable 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 win to clinch the Cougars' maiden title. Azusa Pacific became back-to-back Champions when April Wong clinched the title with her 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Miyahara on the same court. This time, Miyahara, who was the 2019 PacWest Championships MVP, slid down to the No. 6 position in the Sharks' lineup and topped Katherine Nguyen 6-1, 6-3 to clinch the title.
 
Hawai`i Pacific and Azusa Pacific had each won two of the last four conference titles, meaning the Sharks now lead 3-2 for the most conference titles among active schools. BYU-Hawaii won the previous 15 PacWest titles before dropping athletics.
 
Azusa Pacific trailed 3-0 after the Sharks won the doubles point and the matches at Nos. 2 & 3 singles. However, the Cougars mounted an impressive comeback led by Eleonora Liga.
 
Liga finished in second-place in the PacWest Player of the Year voting despite having the best singles record in the PacWest, playing exclusively in the No. 1 position, and beating the No. 1-ranked player in NCAA Division II. Hawai`i Pacific's Elodie Busson was selected for the award by the PacWest coaches before the start of the tournament and she won at No. 2 singles 6-4, 6-3.
 
Liga never got a chance to face Busson, since the PacWest Player of the Year never played in the No. 1 position in singles or doubles. Instead, she got to face the 2022 PacWest Player of the Year Shaline Pipa, and Liga proved her worthiness of the conference's top honor. She won 6-4, 6-0 at No. 1 singles, winning the final seven games of the match consecutively to keep the Cougars' chances of a comeback alive.
 
Miruna Tudor kept the comeback going with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 5 singles against Nicole Ballach. Tudor now has a 19-match winning streak and is undefeated against NCAA Division II opponents. Her 19-match winning streak is the second-longest in the conference, trailing only Liga, who has won 21 in a row.
 
The Cougars' run came to a stop there with Miyahara clinching the title at No. 6 singles. Azusa Pacific will find out where it lands on the NCAA bracket on the selection show. The top-2 seeds of the West Region will host the first round with the winners advancing to the 16-team NCAA Division II National Championships in Florida.