Ellis steady at Mid-Pacific Open

John Ellis shot a 70 to pass first-round leader Brady Stockton for a one-shot lead at the Mid-Pacific Open at Mid-Pac Country Club yesterday.

Ellis is 7 under par through two rounds, one shot better than Nathan Lashley, who also shot a 70 yesterday. Stockton struggled to a 75 to fall into a tie for fourth with Kevin Hayashi, four strokes behind Ellis.

Nick Mason is in third at 4 under par after shooting a 69 to tie for the low round of the day with Hayashi, Tyler Simpson and Daryl Inaba.

David Ishii and Kevin Carll, who both shot 71, are lurking five shots back with the third round today and the final round scheduled for tomorrow.

HPU vs. BYUH for tennis title

Hawaii Pacific and Brigham Young-Hawaii will play for the Pacific West Conference women’s tennis championships at 9 a.m. in Laie today.

The Sea Warriors reached the title match with a 5-0 win over Grand Canyon yesterday, while the Seasiders beat Chaminade by the same score.

UH men tripped up

Dennis Lajola won a pair of matches, but the UH men’s tennis team lost to New Mexico State in Fresno, Calif., yesterday.

Lajola beat Arthur Surreaux 6-1, 6-2 and teamed up with Jonathan Brooklyn to win a doubles match, but all of Hawaii’s other players lost. The Rainbows dropped to 5-11, 1-3 in the WAC, while the Aggies improved to 10-6, 1-1. Hawaii concludes its regular season with a match against Nevada today and Boise State tomorrow.

UH-Hilo’s Patterson smashes HPU

Hawaii-Hilo shortstop Bryan Patterson had four hits and drove in four runs to lead the Vulcans to 12-5 and 4-0 wins over Hawaii Pacific at Wong Stadium yesterday.

The Vulcans (13-19, 9-13 PacWest) pounded out 18 hits in the first game and benefited from five HPU errors. Bryan Raines and Chris Pascual shut the Sea Warriors (16-17, 13-9) out in the second game.