HONOLULU—The University of Hawai'i men's tennis team (7-10, 1-2 Big West) fell in a heartbreaker to UC Riverside, 4-3 on Sunday afternoon. It was Senior Day for UH's two Canadians—
Eric Kenneth and
Asad Siyyid.
The Rainbow Warriors got off to a strong start, winning the doubles point with No. 2
Blaz Seric and Simao Telo Alves taking down Kyle McCann and Andreas Whelan-Merediz, 6-3 and UH's No. 1 duo of
Lucas Labrunie and
Andre Ilagan defeating Anderson Ju and Vignesh Subramanyan by the same score, 6-3 to take the early 1-0 lead.
But, the Highlanders rallied in singles to overtake the 'Bows. On the No. 6 court,
Chia-Hua Lu fell to Fillip Engstrom, 6-3, 6-3 to even the match at 1-1. UH's No. 1 Ilagan then dispatched McCann, 7-5, 6-4 to take a 2-1 match lead. UCR then reeled off three-straight wins at No. 5, 4, and 2 to clinch the match. The Highlanders' Gilbert Chung came back to defeat Labrunie in three sets to clinch the match, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.
In the loss, one of the highlights was UH's No. 3 Seric earning his seventh-straight win, edging out Nabil Abdallah in straight-sets. Both sets were detremined via tiebreakers, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (4). Seric is now 10-6 overall in dual matches.
The Rainbow Warriors have two more road matches at Cal Poly (April 19) and UC Santa Barbara (April 21) before heading to the Big West Championships in Indian Wells, Calif. beginning on Thursday, April 25.
UC Riverside 4, Hawaii 3
Apr 07, 2019 at Honolulu, HI (UH Tennis Complex)
| Singles competition |
| 1. Andre Ilagan (UH) def. Kyle McCann (UCRMT) 7-5, 6-4 |
| 2. Gilbert Chung (UCRMT) def. Lucas Labrunie (UH) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 |
| 3. Blaz Seric (UH) def. Nabil Abdallah (UCRMT) 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-4) |
| 4. Vignesh Subramanyan (UCRMT) def. Simao Telo Alves (UH) 6-1, 6-4 |
| 5. A. Whelan-Merediz (UCRMT) def. Asad Siyyid (UH) 6-3, 7-5 |
| 6. Fillip Engstrom (UCRMT) def. Chia-Hua Lu (UH) 6-3, 6-3 |
| Match Notes |
| Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (6,1,5,3,4,2) |
