The 67th-ranked Hawaii women’s tennis team claimed the 2023 Big West Conference regular-season title by shutting out UC Irvine 4-0 in the regular-season finale on Sunday.
The Rainbow Wahine (11-7) finished with a conference-best 8-1 record, their best record since an 8-0 season in 2017, and will enter Wednesday’s Big West Championships with the No. 1 seed.
UH took an early 1-0 lead after quick wins in doubles competition. UH No. 2 pair Nikola Homolkova and Ana Vilcek beat UCI’s Jenna Schlatter and Alyssa Fossorier 6-1, while No. 1 pair Rita Pinto and Klara Novakova took down UCI sisters Emily and Carolyna Fowler 6-2.
Novakova opened singles play with a near shutout sweep, beating UCI’s Amanda Perez 6-1, 6-0. Vilcek swept Schlatter 6-4, 6-4 at the top of the order, and UH’s No. 3 Satsuki Takamura clinched the match with a 6-4, 6-1 win over UCI’s Asha Gidwani.
The Rainbow Wahine will open the Big West Championship tournament in Thursday’s quarterfinal round at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. UH will take on the winner of the opening-round matchup between eight seed UC Irvine and ninth seed UC Riverside.
Rainbow sailors finish third at PCCSC
The Hawaii coed sailing team placed third in its home waters off Keehi Lagoon at the PCCSC Fleet Race Championship on Sunday.
UH will miss out on the conference’s two automatic berths to the ICSCA Nationals next month in New York. The berths went to regatta-champion Stanford and runner-up UC Santa Barbara. Instead, the Rainbows will hang their hopes on a possible at-large bid at the selection show on May 2.
Stanford finished the championship with a regatta-low 51 points while UCSB finished with 87 and UH had 100. Hawaii held a nine-point lead over UCSB at the start if the day, but dropped after the Gauchos’ strong finish in the regatta’s final 10 races.
UH was skippered by Owen Lahr and Erik Anderson in Division A, with crew Everett McAvoy and Frances Tarpey-Schwed. Bastien Rasse skipped the Division B team, crewed by Chloe Long and Kelsie Grant.
