LOS ANGELES — LMU men's tennis rallied from an early deficit to defeat Hawaii 4-2 Thursday at the LMU Tennis Center, improving the Lions to 11-1 on the season. 

 

The Lions dropped the opening doubles match in No. 3 doubles, where Cyrus Ahmad and Darius Tamaddon fell to Adriano Dzhenev and Kent Mueller, 6-1. The Lions responded quickly, however, as Cesar Cruz and Emil Kindhult evened things out in No. 2 Doubles with a 6-4 victory over Toa Maeda and Azuma Visaya. 

 

With the doubles point on the line, Alex Padro Parra and Max Wuelfing delivered in No. 1 Doubles. After back-to-back double faults in the tiebreaker, Padro collected himself and put away a beautiful crosscourt winner to go ahead 6-4 in the breaker, and the pair closed out the set 7-6 (7-4) over Timothy Li and Kosuke Nakanishi to give LMU the doubles point. 

 

The momentum swung Hawaii's way to open singles play. In No. 3 singles, Nakanishi dispatched Kindhult 6-4, 6-4, while Azuma Visaya rolled past Wuelfing 6-4, 6-3 in No. 1 singles to push the Warriors ahead, 2-1. 

 

Padro Parra steadied the Lions in No. 4 singles, rallying past Dzhenev after dropping the opening set. After falling 6-3 in the first, Padro stormed back to take the second 6-2 and the third 6-1 to knot the match at two apiece. 

 

Kuba Hrynkiewicz kept the momentum going in No. 5 singles, edging Kent Mueller in three sets. Hrynkiewicz took a tightly contested first-set tiebreak 7-6 (7-3) before closing out the match 6-3 in the second to put LMU on the doorstep at 3-2. 

 

Cruz clinched the victory in No. 2 singles, delivering a gutsy performance against Li. After stealing a tense first-set tiebreak 7-6 (8-6), Cruz closed out the match 6-4 in the second to seal the 4-2 final. 

 

The match on court six between Tristan Messerli and Hawaii's Hikaru Takahashi was left unfinished with the outcome already decided. 

 

LMU returns to action on Tuesday, March 24 against Dartmouth with the match scheduled to kick off at noon (PT).