Ana Vilcek tried to tune out the noise.

The Hawaii sophomore was vaguely aware that her match against Cal Poly’s Kim Bhunu at the No. 1 court was potentially the clincher of the Big West women’s tennis tournament championship at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif., on Saturday.

Vilcek, a sophomore from Serbia, took the opening set 6-4, then dropped Set 2 6-1 to set up a deciding third set. It was then she had a conversation with coach Jun Hernandez.

Vilcek won the third 6-2 to win her match and secure UH’s overall 4-2 dual match victory for its first Big West tournament title since 2018, and third conference tournament title ever.

“I was really just trying to stay focused on my court and my score on my court,” Vilcek told the Big West afterward. “I was listening to Coach and I think without him I wouldn’t be able to pull it out the way I did. But obviously it’s an amazing feeling to clinch in the finals. I cannot even describe how I feel right now.”

It was the first time that UH (14-7) paired conference regular-season and tournament titles in the same season.

Things didn’t begin well for the top-seeded Wahine. Second-seeded Cal Poly (14-9) took the doubles point on a couple of tiebreaker wins.

“Fortunately, the doubles is just one point,” Hernandez said. “It’s one of those things. It’s always nice to have, but it’s not necessary to win the doubles to win the whole entire match. So I just told them it’s going to come down to singles, anyway.”

UH’s Klara Novakova beat Delanie Dunkle 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 4 court, Takamura beat Peyton Dunkle 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3, and Madison Kim topped Alexandra Ozerets 6-3, 6-2 at No. 6.

The Wahine topped eighth-seeded UC Irvine on Thursday and fourth-seeded Long Beach State on Friday, both by 4-0 scores.

UH earned a berth in the upcoming NCAA women’s team tennis tournament starting May 17 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.

“We’ve been through a lot together and the hard work paid off,” fifth-year senior Rita Pinto said. “The tournament was a strong and fun tournament, but we were stronger, and together and united we were able to do this. I’m looking forward for the next matches. It’s good to win as a team.”

The Rainbow Warrior tennis team’s season ended with a 4-1 loss to top-seeded and 39th-ranked UC Santa Barbara in the Big West semifinals at the Barnes Tennis Center on Saturday.

It was the second straight year that UCSB (21-3) knocked out UH (11-9) in the semifinals.

Reigning Big West Player of the Year Andre Ilagan, the No. 74 ranked player in the country, had UH’s only win as he defeated Phillip Jordan 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 1 court. Ilagan finished the regular season with a 16-3 singles record and awaits a possible invitation to the NCAA men’s singles tournament.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.