3 tennis titles for BYUH

Brigham Young-Hawaii’s Yuan Jia and Elwen Li won the women’s doubles title yesterday, Jia the singles title and Rong Ma the men’s singles championship at the USTA/ITA West Regional tennis tournament in Los Angeles yesterday.

Seeded No. 1, Jia and Li defeated UC San Diego’s Natalie Varnay and Taskeen Bains 8-3

In singles play top-seeded Jia downed Christie Lau of Cal State Los Angeles 6-2, 6-1 in her semifinal, while Li, seeded second, defeated Katharina Mittag of Grand Canyon 6-0, 6-1.

Li bowed out of the final, giving Jia the title.

In men’s play, BYUH’s Ma took the singles title 7-6, 6-3 over UCSD’s Erik Elliot. Ma and partner Agnel Peter lost in the doubles final to UCSD’s Elliot and Austin West 8-6.

» Hawaii senior Jeremy Tweedt won both of his prequalifying matches yesterday to advance at the D’Novo/ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.

Tweedt defeated Dmitry Suslov of Oral Roberts 6-4, 6-2, then outlasted Drake’s James McKie 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Tweedt needs two wins today to earn a spot in tomorrow’s qualifying portion of the event.

Vulcans sweep Silverswords

Hillary Hurley put down 19 kills and Kawena Cubi-Otineru added 11 as Hawaii-Hilo needed just 90 minutes to top Chaminade 25-22, 25-16, 25-22 in a PacWest volleyball match at the UHH gym last night.

Hurley added 12 digs for the Vulcans (7-3, 2-1). Kylee Pedro led the Silverswords (3-7, 0-3) with 10 kills.

Late goals lift HPU in soccer

Hawaii Pacific scored two goals in the final 7 minutes to edge Dixie State 2-1 yesterday in a PacWest men’s soccer match in St. George, Utah.

Down 1-0, Richard Guffens connected on a cross from Chance Bukoski from four yards out to tie it in the 83rd minute. Bukoski scored the match-winner from 25 yards out 3 minutes later to give the Sea Warriors (6-1, 5-0 PacWest) the victory over the Red Storm (2-6-1, 2-3-1).

In the later women’s match at Hansen Stadium, Dixie State blanked HPU 2-0 for the second time in three days. The Red Storm improved to 7-3 overall and 4-2 in the PacWest; the Lady Sea Warriors dropped to 2-6 and 2-3.

» In Phoenix, Kyle Ciliento scored the game-winner in the 82nd minute to lift the Grand Canyon’s men’s team to a 4-3 win over Brigham Young-Hawaii.

The Seasiders (2-5, 1-4 PacWest) trailed 2-0 at halftime, but came back to tie it when William Barber and Eric Lowe scored within a minute of each other. The teams traded goals, with the Antelopes (7-0-1, 6-0) staying undefeated in the conference on Ciliento’s second goal.

In the women’s contest, BYU-Hawaii handed Grand Canyon its first conference loss of the season 2-1. The Seasiders (5-0-2, 4-0-1) took over first place, while the Antelopes (6-2-1, 4-1-1) dropped into second.

Aspnas second in cross country

Hawaii Pacific’s Frida Aspnas finished second at yesterday’s Charles Bowles Invitational cross country meet in Salem, Ore., leading the Sea Warriors to 14th place out of 24 teams.

Aspnas was timed in 17 minutes, 28 seconds on the 5-kilometer course, 9 seconds behind winner Miriam Kipng’eno of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Ashley Aitken of the University of Hawaii finished fifth (17:38) as the Rainbow Wahine took eighth overall.

In the 8K men’s race, Dany Malley led HPU to 17th place with his 25:47, good for 70th place.

Pan Am gold for Alo

Honolulu’s Teniya Alo took gold in the 31kg division Friday at the Pan American U13 Championships in Panama City, Panama.

Alo was part of Team USA’s successful day in which the Americans medaled in all 16 divisions. The 11-year-old Alo, who fights out of Pearl City Hongwanji Judo, won all three of her matches by ippon (instant win).