Azusa Pacific won their 27th and 28th straight conference matches in gaining wins over Colorado Mesa and Hawai`i Hilo. The Vulcans' Jaime Paquet wins back-to-back Player of the Week honors after winning all five of his singles matches on the week, two of them in three sets.
2025 Results/Schedule
2025 Standings
ITA National Poll
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Hawai`i Hilo's Jaime Paquet, Soph., 5-7, Asturias, Spain
Hawai`i Hilo's Jaime Paquet won five matches last week for the Vulcans on singles court one, improving to 11-2 on the season. After a 2-2 start, the former Tennessee Tech player has won nine in a row. He began the week topping the 2024 PacWest Player of the Year Elias Emilio Walter of Azusa Pacific, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 last Monday, and followed that with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Biola's Flores Monteverde, a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Menlo's Robin Mcalpine, a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Fresno Pacific's Ravi Nelson and a 6-2, 6-1 win over Jessup's Michael Marci. Paquet, who sat out all of last season with an injury, is now 5-1 this year in 3-set matches. He was also 3-2 this past week on doubles court one with teammate
Sergi Tintore.
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Azusa Pacific Cougars
Azusa Pacific has now won 28 matches in a row over PacWest opponents after surviving a tough battle against Hawai`i Hilo, 4-3 before sweeping nationally-ranked No. 28 Colorado Mesa.
Brody Bohren clinched the win over the Vulcans before they could mount a comeback with his 6-4, 6-2 triumph at No. 5 singles. Then against Colorado Mesa, the Cougars put together a strong performance over a nationally-ranked team winning all 12 singles sets on their way to their first shutout win of the season over an NCAA Division II opponent. APU is now 12-2 on the season, with their only two losses coming outside of matches against PacWest teams (UC Riverside and Lubbock Christian).
ITA NATIONAL RANKINGS: Azusa Pacific is ranked No. 9 in the latest ITA national poll (March 19), with another poll coming out tomorrow (Wednesday, March 26).
Concordia is No. 26,
Colorado Mesa is No. 28,
Point Loma is 35th,
Fresno Pacific is 38, and
MSU Denver is 47. The third singles ranking of the spring also came out, with this list of PacWest players:
(26) Soeren Grandke (Azusa Pacific), (27) Elias Emilio Walter (APU), (35) Lluc Limongi Ollers (MSU-Denver), and
(53) Mihi Velicki (APU). PacWest players ranked in doubles are
(17) Walter-Grandke (APU), (28) Marco Jalalian-Alessandro Munoz (MSU Denver), (29) Felix Veyhle-Max Mueller (Concordia), (38) Alexander Leischner-Elias Weeks (Point Loma) and
(42) Andrew Suver-David Fisinger (Point Loma).
PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Hawai`i Hilo upset No. 38 ranked Fresno Pacific, 6-1 at FPU. In addition to
Jaime Pacquet's win on court one (see POW), the Vulcans also won hard fought battles on court three with
Agustin Gentile (6-4, 7-6) and on court six with
Iori Furuhata, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 10-7. The Vulcans closed their California trip with three straight wins to climb into contention for a PacWest tournament spot...Earlier in the week, the Sunbirds had topped both MSU Denver (4-3) and Colorado Mesa (5-2)...
Colorado Mesa went 3-2 last week in California, slipping by Westmont by a 4-3 count to start the week. The Mavericks were led on court five by
Emil Hultman, who went 4-1 on the week. CMU is now 10-9, gaining double figure win totals for the first time since 2017.
THIS WEEK: Some big matches are on tap, coincidentally on the first week that the PacWest seeding committee meets to begin sorting through that process for the conference tournament, April 16-19 in Surprise, Arizona. MSU-Denver is at Azusa Pacific on Monday and Tuesday, while APU and Biola will trade sites for matches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Point Loma is at Concordia on Tuesday, while Hawaii Hilo will go back-to-back at Hawaii Pacific on Thursday and Friday. Jessup is at Westmont on Friday, while Point Loma visits Biola on Saturday and Westmont is at APU. To see the complete schedule,
click here.