Fred Patacchia Jr. of O'ahu's North Shore was eliminated in the fourth round of the Quiksilver Pro men's surfing contest yesterday at Australia.

The fourth round and quarterfinals were completed in 3- to 5-foot waves at Snapper Rocks, Coolangatta, Australia.

No. 2 seed Joel Parkinson of Australia defeated Patacchia, 15.44-14.23. Patacchia needed a score of 6.61 to take the lead in the final minutes, but received a score of 5.4 on his final wave.

Patacchia was the last Hawai'i surfer remaining in the contest.

Several top-seeded surfers were upset yesterday, including defending world champion Mick Fanning of Australia, and nine-time former world champ Kelly Slater of Florida.

The women's Roxy Pro also ran four heats of its third round yesterday at Snapper Rocks.

Coco Ho of Sunset Beach scored a convincing victory over Australia's Amee Donohoe, 15.17-3.97. She was the only Hawai'i surfer to see action in the contest yesterday.

Fellow Hawai'i surfers Melanie Bartels and Carissa Moore have yet to complete their third-round heats.

SOFTBALL

HPU SWEEPS GCU

Kozy Toriano had seven hits in eight at-bats to lead Hawai'i Pacific to a 6-3, 10-1 sweep of Grand Canyon in a Pacific West Conference doubleheader yesterday at Howard A. Okita Field in Kāne'ohe.

Toriano batted 4 for 4 and scored two runs, and Casey Sugihara batted 3 for 5 in the first game.

Toriano added three hits, including two doubles, and two RBIs, and Chante Tesoro had five RBIs, including a three-run double, in the second game.

HPU is 13-1 and 5-1, GCU is 14-4 and 4-4.

TENNIS

UH MEN IN VEGAS

There are five Western Athletic Conference men's teams in the latest ITA rankings, including Hawai'i, which came up 47th in Tuesday's poll. The UH men (5-3) play four matches in Las Vegas this weekend after a three-week break.

The Rainbows face No. 71 UNLV tomorrow, No. 70 Marquette Saturday, Pacific Sunday and No. 67 Oklahoma State Wednesday. OSU features two nationally ranked singles players.

All the Hawai'i losses this season have come against ranked opponents, including then-No. 4 UCLA and No. 9 Stanford. Junior Dennis Lajola is 5-2 at the No. 1 position and sophomore Leo Rosenberg is unbeaten in seven matches.

The 'Bows' next home match is March 17 against Louisville, with three WAC opponents coming in after that.

The Rainbow Wahine, who have played their last eight matches on the road, snapped a six-match losing streak last week at Santa Cara to improve to 2-8.

UH plays at Cal State Northridge Tuesday, then goes to UC Santa Barbara and UNLV. Its next home matches are March 20 against Air Force and Lewis & Clark.

WATER POLO

UH TO PLAY UCLA

Hawai'i, which moved up a spot to No. 5 in this week's College Water Polo Association poll, has moved its home opener to Saturday.

The Rainbow Wahine were originally scheduled to play third-ranked UCLA tomorrow at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatics Complex. Now the match will be played Saturday at 7 p.m., "to accommodate both teams." The Bruins have won the last five NCAA Championships.

Admission to all UH water polo matches is free.

The 'Bows played their first 14 matches on the road, going 8-6 and losing their first two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches, at fourth-ranked Cal and USC. The Trojans moved to the top of the rankings this week.

USC will be here for an exhibition March 17. Hawai'i leaves for an MPSF road trip after that.

Hawai'i's Leonie Van Der Molen (26 goals), Canadian sisters Monika (26) and Carmen (20) Eggens and Dagmar Genee (15) are all ranked among the top 20 in MPSF scoring.