By Tim Heiduk
 
(SAN DIEGO) Westmont tennis became the third Warrior sport to resume competition on Wednesday when the Warriors began play at the NAIA ITA West Regional.
 
The Westmont men had all four of its doubles teams advance to Thursday's quarterfinals. The ninth-seeded duo of Benjamin Saito and Logan Thompson defeated the eighth-seeded pairing from St. Katherine, 8-6, while 13th-seeded Sebastian Vethan and Michael Hopkins won by default against the fourth-seeded team, also from St. Katherine.
 
Both the sixth-seeded duo of Callen Hein and Ethan Ha, as well as the seventh-seeded pairing of Matt Alleman and Zachary Prince, beat their respective opponents by an 8-4 margin.
 
"I was relatively pleased with how our guys competed today," Westmont men's tennis head coach Mark Basham said. "I was excited by our players energy in doubles winning all three matches we played, showing good teamwork."
 
The four Warrior duos are in separate quarterfinal matches, so there is a potential for an all-Westmont semifinal. However, all four Warrior teams will be the lower-seeded pairing in their respective matches.
 
In singles, Ha is the lone remaining Warrior to advance to Friday's quarterfinals. Ha, the 11th seed, won his Round of 32 match against the 22nd seed, Ivan Hernandez of St. Katherine: 6-0, 6-0. He then took his Round of 16 match, as he was ahead 6-1, 4-1 before sixth-seeded Robin Van den Hoek of San Diego Christian retired.
 
"Ethan was really dominant in both his singles wins but I know he will be challenged tomorrow by the #3 seed Ivan Smith," Basham said.
 
Saito, Hein, Prince and Alleman all won their first round singles matches before falling in the second round.
 
"Benny (Saito) fought back after losing the first set in the first round, and actually came back again in the second round, almost winning the second set," Basham said.
 
Saito, the 22nd seed, came out victorious in the first round (3-6, 6-4, 10-7) against the 12th seed, Matt Melosch of St. Katherine. After losing the first set 0-6 in the second round against the sixth seed, Julius Kaufmann of San Diego Christian, Saito forced a second-set tiebreak before dropping the set, 6-7 (2).
 
Hein, the ninth seed, won 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 in the first round against 24th-seeded Paul Niederle of San Diego Christian. Hein then forced a super tiebreak in the second round against eighth-seeded Jose Dominguez of Arizona Christian, before falling: 5-7, 6-2, 7-10.
 
Prince, the 16th seed, won in the first round after 17th-seeded Diego Navarro of St. Katherine retired with Prince leading 1-0. Prince then lost in the second round to top-seeded Nick Nienhaus of San Diego Christian: 1-6, 1-6.
 
Tenth-seeded Alleman won by default in the first round against 23rd-seeded Jacob White of St. Katherine, but dropped his second round match to the seventh seed, Antun Katanec of San Diego Christian: 3-6, 6-7 (3).
 
Vethan, the 25th seed, lost in the first round in a super tiebreak to Dominguez: 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-10. Hopkins, the 28th seed, fell in the first round to Kaufmann: 3-6, 1-6.
 
Heading into the new season, Westmont practiced for the first time as a team last Wednesday.
 
"I felt our guys were motivated to practice Wednesday through Saturday of last week and I look forward to seeing how much each player can improve this fall," Basham said.
 
The Warriors are doing everything they can to ensure a safe return to play in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic.
 
"Every one of our players was COVID tested, temperature checked for each practice, wearing masks when necessary and trying to maintain social distance," Basham said.
 
The ITA NAIA West Regional, which continues Thursday and finishes on Saturday, is being hosted by San Diego Christian at Barnes Tennis Center.