MAUI, Hawaii  Whitman College's women's tennis team opened its dual-match season Thursday in the idyllic settings of the Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch. The Oceanside courts provided a home-court advantage to host Hawaii Pacific University, though, as the NCAA Division II Sharks played to a 9-0 victory over the Division III Blues.

Though team rankings from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) aren't released this early in the season, the national and regional singles and doubles rankings are posted, and Whitman found itself up against the Nos. 9, 10 and 21-ranked singles players in D-II and an 11th-ranked doubles pairing.

The Blues' Andrea Gu and Hanna Greenberg -- ITA All-Americans in doubles, and the No. 12 national doubles tandem in D-III -- took on HPU's Lena Lutzeier and Oceane Adam (No. 3 doubles ranking in ITA D-II West region) in 1-doubles Thursday, falling 8-0 to their hosts.

The Sharks played their nationally-ranked twosome of Barbora Kijasova and Lara Meccico at 2-doubles, where they defeated Whitman's Mary Hill and Anastasiya Redkina (8-2) to lift HPU to a 2-0 lead in the match.

A win at No. 3 doubles provided the Sharks with a doubles sweep heading into the six singles bouts.

Lutzeier, ninth nationally and first in the West region, had to battle Gu at 1-singles, outlasting the Whitman sophomore -- and 2017 Northwest Conference freshman of the year -- by a score of 6-3, 6-2.

Meccico, 10th nationally and second in the region, took Hill in straight sets, 1 and 1, while Adam (No. 21 nationally, sixth regionally) downed Greenberg 2-0.

The longest match of the afternoon came at No. 5 where Whitman's Cello Lockwood won the first set, 6-4, before HPU's Leticia Gonzalez dos Santos rebounded to take the next set, 6-4, and then eked out the victory with a 1-0 (11-9) win in the third.

Whitman and HPU are back at it again Friday afternoon at the Wailia Tennis Center.