Hawaii Pacific looked too far ahead in its past two national championship appearances.

This week, the HPU’s men’s tennis team isn’t thinking beyond today’s opponent at the NCAA Division II Championship in Denver. The third-ranked Sharks (17-3), who lost in the past two title matches, open the round of 16 against fourth-ranked Lander (19-5).

“There’s no way for us to look any further in the draw,” HPU coach Hendrik Bode said. “The past couple years, the focus was too much on getting to the ultimate goal of winning a national championship. At times, I feel like that created a little too much pressure. I think the focus really needs to be at one match at a time this year and see where it takes us.”

The HPU men are one of three local teams playing today in Denver. In the women’s championship, top-ranked BYU-Hawaii (22-0) plays ninth-ranked Columbus State (21-6) and No. 7 HPU (16-5) takes on No. 11 Northeastern State (20-3). BYUH lost 5-0 in last year’s final to Barry.

“We talked about the loss at the tournament and why we think it happened and what we have to do to adjust to it,” said BYUH coach Dave Porter, who broke the NCAA record for combined (men’s and women’s) wins back in March.

The HPU men lost to Barry in last year’s final and to West Florida in 2014. Barry and West Florida didn’t advance to Denver and of the three teams HPU lost to this year, only Armstrong State is still playing.

“We lost in the finals the last two years, so there’s nothing wrong that we did,” said HPU senior Thibaud Berland, the top-ranked singles player in D-II. “We just lost 5-3, 5-3 the last two years. It was really close matches anyway. We just try to get better by working harder and really hard in practices.”

The HPU men and BYUH women have not played since winning their PacWest championship matches on April 16. Porter said the league will push back the conference tournament next year to avoid the long layoff. The HPU women didn’t receive a regional bye like the other two teams and beat UC San Diego on May 7 in a regional match.

“They just want to get out and play,” Bode said. “We had to change up practices a little bit, come up with fun things to do.”

All three squads have spent the past few days adjusting to Denver’s altitude and practicing with high-altitude balls. Those balls are heavier than regular tennis balls and move at a different pace. Both HPU teams played in Denver in March.

“It’s the fact the balls are flying,” said Berland, a two-time All-American. “It’s a different sensation compared to Hawaii.”

Berland and freshman Alexander Meyer are D-II’s third-ranked doubles team. Jaume Martinez-Vich is a three-time All-American.

BYUH’s Dallas Zhang is the top-ranked singles player in D-II. Zhang and Summer Wen are the nation’s top-ranked doubles duo and teammates Karen Liu and Suzie Hsieh are ranked 10th. Zhang and Liu are two-time All-Americans.

“Hopefully if we can continue doubles at a high level, that will get us off to a good start in our matches,” said Porter, who has led BYUH to 11 national titles in D-II and NAIA.

HPU’s Kristyna Hancarova and Nicole Hoynaski are both ranked in the top 20 for singles and the two are ranked fourth in doubles. BYUH and HPU are in opposite sides of the women’s bracket. The four-day tournament ends on Saturday with the championship matches.