By Tim Heiduk
February 16, 2020
 
(RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.) The Westmont men's tennis team (1-2 overall, 1-0 GSAC) won its first match of the season on Saturday, defeating Marymount (0-4, 0-1) in its Golden State Athletic Conference opener, 4-1.
 
"Our guys played well," Westmont head coach Mark Basham said. "It was nice to get the win."
 
The Warriors began the match by taking the point available in doubles by virtue of winning two out of the three doubles matches.
 
"We were a little bit tight in doubles," Basham said. "I thought we could've won at number one, but lost 6-4. We won easily at number three with a team that hasn't really played together before in Ryan Chung and Trevor Stephens.
 
"Then at number two we were down two breaks, 3-0, then Benny (Saito) and Sebastian (Vethan) came back and did a great job winning 6-4. That was really important because it gave us the 1-0 lead going into singles."
 
Westmont expanded on its early lead by taking three of the four matches that were completed in singles.
 
Abraham Pauta got things started for the Warriors by winning at number six against Adalberto Juarez, 6-2, 6-0. Benjamin Saito picked up the next Westmont win, defeating Conrad Spedding at number four, 6-1, 6-1. Zachary Prince clinched the match for the Warriors by winning at number two against Kevin Orellana, 6-1, 6-1.
 
Sebastian Vethan was leading his number five singles match against Andrew Herd, 6-3, 3-1, when Prince picked up Westmont's fourth point to seal the match. Matt Alleman lost the first set against Marcos Silvestre at number one, 6-4, but was leading 3-2 in the second set when the match was called. Adil Kahn picked up the Mariners' lone point by defeating Ryan Chung at number three, 6-2, 6-2.
 
The Warriors have next week off before returning to the court against #18 San Diego Christian on Feb. 28 at 11:00 a.m.