IRVINE, Calif.--The 67th-ranked University of Hawai'i women's tennis team (11-7) shut out UC Irvine, 4-0 to win the 2023 Big West regular season title ending the regular season with a conference-best 8-1 record. The Rainbow Wahine will enter as the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Big West Championships which begins on Wednesday, April 26.

The 'Bows quickly earned the doubles point for the 1-0 lead. UH's No. 2 duo of Nikola Homolkova and Ana Vilcek nearly blanked UCI's Jenna Schlatter and Alyssia Fossorier, 6-1, while Hawai'i's No. 1 pair of Rita Pinto and Klara Novakova knocked off sisters Emily and Carolyna Fowler, 6-2.

In singles play, UH's Novakova led things off nearly tossing a shutout, defeating the Anteaters' Amanda Perez, 6-1, 6-0. Playing at the top of the order, Hawai'i's Vilcek swept UCI's Schlatter, 6-4, 6-4. The Rainbow Wahine's No. 3 Satsuki Takamura then clinched the match with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Asha Gidwani, 6-4, 6-1.

The Rainbow Wahine finish the regular season with an 8-1 conference record--its best finish since going undefeated at 8-0 in 2017. Three players ended the season with double-digit singles wins--Vilcek and Takamura finished with 12 wins apiece while Pinto finished the season strong to end the regular season with a 10-7 overall record.

Hawai'i will open the BW Championship tourney in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, April 27 at 9:00 a.m. HT, facing the winner of the No. 8 UC Irvine vs. No. 9 UC Riverside match. The tourney will be held at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif.