Here, any discussion of NCAA Division II tennis begins and ends with Brigham Young-Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific. Nationally, in recent years, it is about Barry and Armstrong Atlantic.

The small (2,747 undergraduate students) private Catholic University in Miami Shores, Fla., and public university in Savannah, Ga., are ranked 1-2 nationally among women and men. They are also the favorites at this week’s national championships, which begin today in Surprise, Ariz.

The Seasiders and Sea Warriors are still in the discussion, however. The third-ranked BYUH women can never be ignored after winning nine national titles — the last in 2007 — and suffering a painfully close loss to Armstrong in last year’s national final. Fourth-ranked HPU beat BYUH for the first time this year.

The HPU men are ranked fifth and coming off their first PacWest championship. Junior Petr Michnev — there are no seniors on the roster — earned MVP honors and is ranked second nationally.

BYUH senior Annie Hwang is also ranked second, and was named national D-II Player of the Year on Tuesday. She is 80-1 in her career. Teammate Sherry Liu is ranked sixth and the pair is the nation’s top-ranked D-II doubles team. Ielysaveta Rybakova is HPU’s top-ranked player at No. 12.

Doubles will be key, according to all of the Hawaii coaches. In D-II, all three doubles matches are first to eight games; each match is worth a point. A fast start is huge.

"It’s a sprint in doubles, then you settle into the long distance of singles," says HPU women’s coach Lauren Conching, the 2013 national Coach of the Year. "Sometimes when you sprint you trip on your shoes."

That is what happened to BYUH in last year’s final. Armstrong won its sixth title in nine years by capturing two doubles matches, winning the opening set on all but one singles court and holding on for dear life.

This year, Seasiders coach Dave Porter has three seniors on a roster of eight. He is hoping his team’s draw, experience, good health and bad memories will be the difference.

"We are not as deep as either one (Barry or Armstrong), but we are as strong or stronger at the top," he said. "For us to win, we need to win at least two doubles matches because there is a pretty good chance we’ll pick up three singles wins."

The women’s draw was a surprise, particularly to Armstrong and Barry, who could face off in Thursday’s quarterfinals. If HPU gets past 14th-ranked New York Institute of Technology today and wins again Thursday against a team outside the Top 25, it could see a bruised and battered opponent across the net.

Conching believes her team’s loss to BYUH in the PacWest final will ultimately be helpful.

"It released the pressure, poked a balloon that was ready to explode anyway and let everyone breathe a little," the second-year coach said. "It also showed how much it meant to them. They were angry after they lost, very mad for letting it happen. It brought up a lot of things we could fix in the last couple weeks."

Hendrik Bode, a former HPU All-American, is Conching’s husband and also in his second year as HPU men’s coach. The Sea Warriors have reached three national finals (2000, 2001 and 2003) but have yet to win. This team believes it can.

"They are extremely motivated," Bode says. "I’m certain they believe they can win, can beat any team we’ve faced. All the matches we’ve played, even if the final result was not close, we were right in there."

Armstrong is going after its fourth NCAA men’s title in six years, with senior Georgi Rumenov the top-ranked D-II player and four teammates ranked. Barry won the 2010 men’s title and was second in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

HPU was third in 2009, when Bode was a senior.

HPU’s Michnev won the regional Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award, and teammate Jaume Martinez-Vich was regional Rookie of the Year, while Bode was Coach of the Year in the West. BYUH’s Marietta Tuionetoa was the West’s Player to Watch.