Box Score
By Kaci Mexico
May 17, 2017
 
(MOBILE, Ala.) In the second round of the Men's Tennis NAIA National Tournament, the twelfth ranked Westmont Men's Tennis (14-8) season came to an end when they were defeated by #5 Campbellsville (25-4) in a score of 5-2.  
 
In doubles, the Warriors went down 0-2 when Tommy Nightingale and Jordan Strandness were defeated by Mario Belloni and Adrian Sabrojo 5-8 playing at number three; and Luke Whalen and John Joens fell to Brendan Aguilar and Victor Ahlbeck 3-8 playing at number two. Westmont's Christian Mathis and Philipp Sibbel earned the Warriors' first point when they conquered Chrys Castro and Alejandro Reyes 8-6 playing at number one.
 
"I knew they were going to be tough and they certainly were," reflected head coach Mark Basham. "Doubles was pretty good for us actually and I was especially happy with how Christian and Phillip played at number one - they proved that they are a top ten team in the NAIA and they really gave us a fighting chance by winning their match."
 
The Warriors embarked upon singles play down 1-2 and would have to win four of six singles matches to win the overall match.
 
The Tigers earned two more points when they were victorious at numbers five and six singles – Belloni defeated Nightingale 6-4, 6-2 and Castro downed Barnard in three sets 6-0, 6-7, 6-1. Westmont's Sibbel reduced the gap to two and made the score 2-4 when he conquered Reyes 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) playing at number two.
 
With three matches still in play – the Warriors needed to win out in order to win the overall match. Joens and Whalen were each down a set and in the midst of a tiebreaker in the second set, while Mathis was up a set and in the midst of a second set when ultimately Aguilar defeated Whalen in the tiebreaker to win the overall match 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).
 
"I thought we battled super hard in singles and there was a moment where I thought we may be able to pull it off and I think we were fairly close," explained Basham. "I think we showed a lot of heart and fight and grit. Overall, it was a really good season for us and we maximized what we had."
 
The Warriors end the 2017 season with a Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament Championship title (the first in twenty years), as well as a second round showing in the NAIA National Tournament.