Hawaii men’s tennis player Andre Ilagan earned the Big West’s automatic bid as the highest-ranked player in the conference, the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Subcommittee announced Tuesday.
Ilagan is set to become just the second Rainbow Warrior in program history to compete at the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Singles Championships, joining Andreas Weber, who competed in the tournament as an at-large in 2007.
The NCAA Tournament will be held May 23-28 at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Ill.
Hawaii schools sweep men’s golf awards
All three 2022 Pacific West Conference men’s golf awards went to Hawaii schools. Hawaii Pacific’s Keita Okada and Ed Kageyama were named the Golfer of the Year and Coach of the Year, while Chaminade’s Ryan Shields Vega was named the Freshman of the Year.
Okada, who was named Freshman of the Year after winning the conference title last year, defended his title in 2022 while earning Golfer of the Year along the way. In the championship, he led after two rounds, and held on with a 2-over-par 74 in the final round to win the title by four strokes. He also led the Sharks to a PacWest team title with his performance in the playoff.
Kageyama earns his first selection as the PacWest Coach of the Year after leading Hawaii Pacific to its first PacWest Conference Championship in his second full season with the Sharks.
He led the team to a third-place finish in his first season in 2021. Heading into the regional, this year’s team holds the lowest team scoring average in school history at 300.21.
Chaminade’s Shields Vega won the PacWest Freshman of the Year after tying for 15th at the conference championships. He was a co-leader at one point after shooting 3-under-par 69 in the first round, just one shot off the school record for a single 18-hole round. He finished the season ranked third on the team with a 79.32 scoring average.
The 2022 All-PacWest Men’s Golf teams also includes a number of athletes from Hawaii schools. Okada and Hawaii Hilo’s Keith Ng earned first-team selections, the Vulcans’ Dustin Franko and Andrew Otani were named to the second team, and Hawaii Pacific’s Ryan Torres was selected to the third team.
On the women’s side, HPU’s Lily Landt was a third-team selection.
HPU tennis earns top seeds
The selections for the NCAA Division II Men’s Tennis Championship and the NCAA Division II Women’s Tennis Championship were announced Tuesday, with good news for the Hawaii Pacific men’s and women’s tennis teams. Both teams earned the top seed in the men’s and women’s NCAA Division II West Region and will host a regional match.
The No. 4 Sharks men’s team (16-2) will host fourth-seeded and No. 41 Hawaii Hilo (9-9) in the West Region 1 championship match on Monday at 3 p.m.
The No. 10 HPU women’s team (15-8) will host fourth-seeded and No. 31 Point Loma (19-7) in the West Region 1 championship match on Friday at 3 p.m.
Both matches will be held at the Kailua Racquet Club. The winners of each match will advance to the NCAA Division II National Championships at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla. The men’s tournament will be held May 18-22, while the women’s tournament will be held May 17-21.
