Sea Warriors going on
the road for tennis regionalAs expected, the Brigham Young-Hawaii tennis teams will host their regional tournaments.
What wasn't expected was that both Hawaii Pacific teams were booted from the second spot and will travel to California for their regional.
Because a team needs at least a .500 record against other NCAA Div. II teams, only five teams qualified for the eight-team regional. That gives the Seasiders a bye in the first round of their men's regional at Laie. They will play the winner between UH-Hilo and UC Davis for the right to go to the 16-team national tournament. That regional final will be played May 3.
The Hawaii Pacific men will play UC San Diego at San Diego on May 2 for the right to go to the national tournament. The contest was originally scheduled to be played May 3, but the NCAA shifted it so that Henry Somerville, who coaches both the men's and women's Sea Warrior teams, will be able to attend his women's regional final -- if they make it that far -- May 3 at Pomona, Calif.
HPU's women will play UC Davis on May 2 for the right to play in the regional final.
The Sea Warriors and UH-Hilo were both ranked behind Cal Poly Pomona even though they both beat the Broncos this year. BYUH coach Dave Porter doesn't agree with the seedings, and says that the Sea Warriors were 20 minutes away from being in their rightful spot at No. 2.
The Seasiders played a "no contest" with the Broncos earlier this year, with the contest rained out. Porter says that with good weather, his team would have beaten the Broncos and knocked them out of the second spot.
Hilo's women are the biggest losers in the seedings though, as the Vulcans have to travel to Laie to play UC San Diego on May 2 for the right to play the winner between national No. 1 BYUH and Sonoma State. Porter says that his version of the seedings would have had Hilo playing HPU at HPU for the right to go to nationals.
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