Hawaii junior Andre Ilagan dropped the first set in two matches on Friday but rallied to win both to advance to the semifinals at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
Ilagan, the first UH player to advance in the event’s main draw, defeated 65th-ranked Cannon Kingsley of Ohio State 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1 in the round of 16. He again fell behind in his quarterfinal match with Columbia’s Alex Kotzen before rolling to a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory.
Ilagan will next face No. 28 August Holmgren of San Diego in one of today’s semifinal matches.
Ilagan had to win three qualifying matches to become the fourth UH player to reach the tournament’s main draw and the first since Dennis Lajola in 2010. The Farrington graduate has wins over six nationally ranked players in his seven-match winning streak.
Lippert scores twice in UH Hilo win
Luca Lippert scored twice and the UH Hilo men’s soccer team beat Academy of Art 2-1 in San Francisco on Friday.
Lippert’s scores came nearly a minute apart in the first 10 minutes of the contest. The Vulcans improved to 3-5, 1-3 in the PacWest, while the Urban Knights fell to 0-7-1, 0.3.
The UH Hilo women beat Academy of Art 1-0 before the men’s contest, with Daelenn Tokunaga scoring the lone goal in the 79th minute of a tense struggle.
Tokunaga leads the PacWest with nine goals this season and helped the Vulcans improve to 6-3, 3-1 in conference. The Urban Knights dropped to 1-4-2 and 0-3.
Biola sweeps HPU in volleyball
Dani Bryant, Abigail Copeland and Madison Beebe each had seven kills and Biola swept Hawaii Pacific 25-18, 25-22, 25-19 at the Shark Tank.
The Eagles (8-6, 4-2 PacWest) hit .405 in the match, while the Sharks (2-14, 1-7) struggled to a .220 percentage.