[ DIVISION II SPORTS ]
After yesterday's classic quarterfinal match, the NCAA might wish it had seeded Hawaii Pacific on the other side of the bracket to ensure an entertaining final. Seasiders survive rival
HPU in nationalsStar-Bulletin staff
Brigham Young-Hawaii and HPU staged a classic match in the quarterfinals of the national NCAA Div. II tournament at Kansas City, Mo., yesterday, with the Sea Warriors running out to a 4-2 lead but allowing the No. 1 Seasiders to come back and take the match 5-4.
"This is a very satisfying win in a hard-fought battle between what I consider to be the top two teams in the country," BYUH coach Dave Porter said. "It's unfortunate that Hawaii Pacific wasn't seeded higher so this match could have been in the semifinals or finals."
Hawaii Pacific broke down BYUH's doubles to start the match, but it was by no means easy. All three matches went to extra sets, with BYUH's Hung Soon Park and Hong Tae Kim avoiding an HPU sweep by surviving Karl Sloss and Stefan Pampulov 8-5.
The Sea Warriors extended their lead into singles when Jan Tribler, who is 4-0 against BYUH this season, swept Andrew Makarevich 6-2, 6-1. Peter Madarassy got the point back for BYUH by taking care of Blaz Jurjec 6-3, 6-2.
Then HPU's Mikael Maata finally beat BYUH's No. 1, sweeping Jan Krejci 6-4, 6-3. Maata had never beaten Krejci in three chances.
But Kim swept Sloss and Dauda Ndiaye survived Stefan Pampulov 7-6 (5), 7-5 to leave the match up to BYUH's Hung Soon Park and HPU's Matey Pampulov.
Pampulov was wrapping up a 6-0 win over Park in the second set as the attention began to focus on them. Park won the first set 7-5. Park recovered from his sub-par second set by starting the third with a service win. Pampulov came back to take the next two sets but Park broke him in the fourth and held serve the rest of the way to send the Seasiders to the semifinals and the Sea Warriors home before the third round for the third straight year.
"We knew that BYUH had to play well today for them to beat us and they did just that," HPU coach Henry Sommerville said.
BYUH women walk into semifinals: Also in Kansas City, Mo., the Seasider women won their quarterfinal match easily, beating Abilene Christian (Texas) 5-0.
The Seasiders swept the doubles competition, highlighted by Adrienn Hegedus and Amy Sun's 8-0 thrashing of Rachel Taylor and Joy Israel. They only needed wins in singles from Petra Gaspar at No. 2 and Tomoko Sukegawa at No. 5 to clinch it. BYUH will take on Lynn University in the semifinals today.
It will be a rematch of last year's championship, won by Lynn 5-3.
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