AZUSA, Calif. – Each of the last three PacWest Championship matches and seven of the last nine have been between Azusa Pacific and Hawai`i Pacific. In fact, all but one of the PacWest Championships since men's tennis became a PacWest sport in 2013 has been won by either the Cougars or Sharks.
In the 32
nd meeting of the best rivalry in PacWest men's tennis, Azusa Pacific earned a 6-1 win, winning five singles matches in straight sets to take down the Sharks for the fourth time in a row on Sunday afternoon at the Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex.
Elias Emilio Walter began his career against Hawai`i Pacific with an 0-3 record in singles and a 1-3 record in doubles. However, the Cougars' No. 1 player now has three-consecutive wins in singles and four in doubles against the Sharks after winning both of his matches on his birthday to lead Azusa Pacific to a critical regular season win.
"It always feels good to beat HPU. We've always had tough matches against them," Walter said. "It was nice to win on our home courts. To beat them 6-1 is a good score for us. We have a lot of quality on the team, and I'm excited for what's ahead this season. We've improved a lot of positions since the fall semester, and I think we are going to be very competitive this year."
The Cougars are now 10-2 on the season, while Hawai`i Pacific drops to 4-5. No. 9 Azusa Pacific has now won all seven matches against PacWest opponents this season and is the only team that is undefeated against PacWest teams in the West Region.
Walter started the match with a doubles win alongside
Soeren Grandke in the duo's fourth match playing together. The duo won 6-3 at No. 1 doubles, and then
Brody Bohren and
David James Brownlee won 6-4 at No. 2 doubles to clinch the opening point.
Joan Crespo and
Miha Velicki were tied at 5-all in their doubles set when it was stopped.
"Aside from the one match against Weber State, all of our matches together have been good," Walter said about his new parternship with Grandke at No. 1 doubles. "We've played very confident so far, and we beat the No. 1 doubles team in the country 6-1 together, so that was a really good win for us. We have a lot of confidence that we can beat anyone if we play together well."
The Cougars quickly turned that into a 2-0 lead with the help of Grandke's 6-1, 6-2 win over Adam Vasir. The Sharks' No. 2 singles player had won six of his last seven singles matches, but Grandke dispatched his opponent in less than an hour to earn his team-best 11
th win of the season.
Crespo broke in the opening game of his match and never looked at No. 5 singles. He needed just over an hour to collect a 6-4, 6-0 win. He is now a perfect 5-0 when playing at No. 5 singles. Brownlee then won his match 7-5, 3-0, ret. in his 10th win of the season.
Just a minute later, Walter broke Mile Matic's serve for the third time of the day to secure the No. 1 singles match. Walter won 6-3, 6-3 in his first singles match in two weeks to improve to 6-1 on the season.
"Coming back after some time off is always a bit nerve-racking," Walter said. "I was a little bit nervous for this match, but it was good to be out here. Mile was really solid. I had to play well on my service games, and I didn't get broken. I felt strong in the rallies, but he was serving really well, which made him tough to break. I ended up breaking him three times which was just enough, but this was a solid win for me, because he is a high quality opponent."
The Sharks got their lone point of the day with a 7-5, 6-1 win by Arthur Pery at No. 6 singles against
Brody Bohren. However, the day ended with a win for the Cougars. Velicki broke for the opening set to take it 6-4 and then took an early lead in the second set. He went on to win the match 6-4, 6-3 against Finnegan Heber for his fourth win in a row.
Azusa Pacific has now won 12 of its last 16 singles matches against NCAA Division II opponents. Meanwhile in doubles, the Cougars have won the point three times in a row now against Division II teams after struggling in doubles early in the season.
Next week, the Cougars will play a pair of Lone Star Conference teams that are nationally ranked. On Thursday, they will play against No. 39 Western New Mexico and then it will be another top-10 opponent for the Cougars on Saturday in No. 7 Lubbock Christian.
