(SAN DIEGO) In a rematch of last year's NCAA West Regional, preseason PacWest favorites Hawai'i Pacific edged PLNU Men's Tennis, 5-2, on Wednesday afternoon.
 
HPU won the doubles point before Matt Melosch (No. 5 – 6-2, 7-5) and Andrew Suver (No. 2 – 6-2, 6-3) picked up singles wins for the Sea Lions to put the hosts up 2-1 overall in the match.
 
However, the Sharks won the remaining four singles matches to claim the victory.
 
After the visitors won at No. 6, the two teams were tied at 2-2 with the remaining three singles matches all requiring a third set.

"The men's match was a battle," Head Coach Curt Wheeler said. "Every court was very contested and multiple close matches didn't go our way. When you have teams that are very similar in ability and talent and can go out and beat anybody in the conference, it just comes down to winning those close matches."
 
Alexander Leischner (No. 1) and Nabeel Khan (No. 4) both won the first sets of their singles matches before their opponents came back to win. Khan led 1-0 in the third before suffering an injury that clearly hobbled him the rest of the way.
 
David Strassburger (No. 3) overcame a first-set loss to win the second and force a deciding third stanza. He opened the final set by breaking his opponent's serve before HPU came back to clinch the match with the victory at No. 3, making the result for Leischner at No. 1 singles inconsequential to the overall match result.

"Today it just didn't go our way but there's no confidence lost," Wheeler said. "They know that if they would've executed a few more points, then that 2-5 could've been very different in our favor."
 
Point Loma (5-3 overall) had its four-match winning streak snapped and will look to return to winning ways on Monday at 1 p.m. when the PLNU hosts Colorado Mesa.