April 3, 2015

PENSACOLA, Fla. - In what was a battle of two of the best collegiate men's tennis teams in the country, Georgia Gwinnett, the top team in the NAIA, fell 5-3 to NCAA Division II's No. 1 team in Hawaii Pacific on the campus of West Florida.

The Grizzlies, which dropped to 10-2 on the year, saw their five-match winning streak snapped as the setback was the first since a similarly close loss to Barry, the No. 3 team DII, last month.

HPU improved to 17-0.

Doubles proved huge for the Sharks as the team won in 8-6 fashion at each of the top two positions, with the lone Grizzly point coming from an 8-5 decision by Luke Morland and Kevin Konfederak over Jaume Martinez-Vich and Clemens Graute.

In the other two spots, the fifth-ranked DII tandem of Thibaud Berland and Yann Renault beat Matias Hatem and Lachlan McPhee on line one, and NAIA's No. 1 team of Jordan Cox and Connor Clements fell to Marko Lenz and Maiko Burlage.

In singles, fifth-ranked Konfederak fell 6-4, 6-2 to Lenz, the No. 2 player in DII, and Cox, who entered the match as the second-ranked player in the NAIA, beat No. 8 Berland 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

Clements avenged the doubles loss with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Berlage at No. 4, and Lachlan McPhee dropped the first match of his dual career, falling in 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 fashion to Graute. On line six, Tony Licata lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Renault.

Hatem, who is currently No. 6 in the NAIA, was in a battle with the No. 15 player in DII in Martinez-Vich on Court 3 as the match was called with the two tied at 5-5 in the third set.

GGC will return to action with two more tough DII opponents on Saturday as the team will face No. 10 Valdosta State in the morning and second-ranked and defending national champion West Florida in the afternoon.

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