HPU women fall in D-II tennis semifinals

The Hawaii Pacific women’s tennis team lost to West Florida 5-4 in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II women’s championships on Thursday in Surprise, Ariz.

Lena Lutzeier and Lara Meccico won singles matches for the No. 2 Sharks (21-3). Lutzeier and Oceane Adam, and Meccico and Barbora Kijasova won doubles matches.

HPU, which led 4-1, lost in the semifinals for the third consecutive year.

The No. 4 Argonauts (31-3) will play No. 1 Barry in the final.

UH men’s beach duo goes 2-0

Hawaii’s Brett Rosenmeier and Colton Cowell went 2-0 in the men’s pool-play portion of the USAV Beach Volleyball Championships’ opening day at Hermosa Beach, Calif., on Thursday.

The Rainbow Warrior pair defeated Quincy’s Collin Merk and Anthony Winter 17-21, 21-7, 15-8 and Florida State’s Jon Justice and Adam Wienckowki 21-14, 19-21, 15-12 to win Pool B and advance to today’s semifinal of the seven-team event. Rosenmeier and Cowell will face the winner of between Merk and Winter and Penn State’s Will Bantle and Matt McLaren. The semifinal loser drops into Saturday’s third-place match and the winner will play for the title.

In the 30-team women’s bracket, Hawaii’s Cali Bunn and Presley Forbes dropped both of their pool-play matches and were eliminated Thursday.