MEDIA RELEASE

The University of Hawaii at Hilo men’s tennis team is 2-1 after the first three days of the Grand Canyon University Invitational in Phoenix, Ariz.

The Vulcans (2-3) opened with a 9-0 win over Montana State University-Billings.

In doubles, Kevin Tamura and Stephen Royalty beat Travis Lehman and Josh Schouman (8-0), Aaron Tada and Justin Dugan beat Luis Olivera and Delbert Landicho (8-3), and Ross Sugiyama and Larson Oliva beat Stephan Gruener and Goeff Fehr.(8-5).

Tamura beat Navin Marimuthu (6-1, 6-4), Royalty beat Franco Valdez (6-3, 6-0), Dugan beat Schouman (6-2, 6-1), Tada beat Lehman (7-6, 6-0), Matthew Tavares beat Fehr (6-1, 6-1), and Sugiyama beat Landicho (6-3, 6-0).

The next day, Stephen Royalty went 2-0 against Midwestern State University but the Vulcans loss the match 7-2.

Royalty teamed with Tamura to beat Carlos Bataller and Daniel McMullan in first doubles (8-5), Royalty then beat Bataller in second singles (6-7, 6-1, 10-5).

In the remaining matches, Tada and Dugan loss to Octavian Dinuta and Vjekoslav Stipanic (8-6), and Sugiyama and Oliva loss to Chad Meeks and Luke Joyce (8-5).

In singles, Tamura loss to Bozo Ziputovic (6-1, 6-3), Dugan loss to Stipanic (6-0, 6-2), Tada loss to McMullan (6-1, 6-1), Tavares loss to Joyce (6-4, 6-1) and Sugiyama loss to Dinuta (0-6, 7-5, 10-2).

Dugan and Tada picked up wins in singles and doubles as the UH Hilo beat Grand Canyon University 7-2 on the third day.

The pair teamed to beat Eric Schroeder and Brian Kirby (8-6) in doubles then came back in singles with Dugan beating Schroeder (6-2, 6-4), and Tada beating Kirby (6-3, 6-1).

In doubles, Tamura and Royalty beat Patrice Giraldi and Will Heubert (8-4), while Sugiyama and Oliva loss to Seymon Gas and Sebastian Guevara (8-1).

In singles, Tamura loss to Giraldi (6-1, 2-6, 10-6), Royalty beat Gas (4-6, 6-4, 10-8), Tavares beat Guevara (6-1, 6-1) and Oliva beat Jonathan Przybyl (6-1, 6-2).