By Ron Smith
February 18, 2021
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont men's tennis had a tough time with Saint Katherine in a Golden State Athletic Conference game at the Abbott Tennis Courts today. The Warriors fell to the Firebirds 5-2.
 
Saint Katherine, a member of the California Pacific Conference, joined the GSAC for men's and women's tennis this year because there are not enough tennis teams in the CalPac.
 
"I am very thankful to be able to host a match on a beautiful day," said Westmont head coach Mark Basham. "Nick Szyndlar, who was a Westmont Warrior for four years, is the coach of the men and women at Saint Katherine. He has done a good job recruiting some players. They are pretty solid and they were better than us today."
 
Westmont's Ethan Ha and Callen Hein defeated Diego Navarra and Sebastian Gomez taking the number one court 6-2 in doubles play, but the Warriors lost on court two and three. At number two, Matt Melosch and Max Schroeder defeated Logan Thompson and Benjamin Saito 6-4 while at number three Alessandro Cadena and Jacob White won 6-2 over Matthew Alleman and Sebastian Vethan.
 
"I was really happy with how Ethan and Callen played at number one doubles, winning decisively," expressed Basham. "I thought we could have won at number two doubles. There were a couple of key points that didn't go our way. At number three doubles, we didn't play as well as we did against Concordia when Matt and Sabastian won."
 
With victories on the number two and three doubles court, the Firebirds took a 1-0 lead into singles play. First to finish was the number two singles court where Ha defeated Gomez 6-1, 6-2. Then at number six, Vethan defeated his Firebird opponent 6-2, 6-2 to put the Warriors up 2-1.
 
"Ethan beat a solid player decisively," acknowledged Basham, "and Sebastian won convincingly at number six. At that point, I was hopeful that we would have enough, but it didn't happen and it was certainly disappointing."
 
Unfortunately for the Warriors, the rest of the sets would go to the Firebirds.
 
On the number three court, Melosch defeated Hein 6-4, 6-3 to tie the score at two. That put the pressure on courts one, four and five, which all went to three sets. At number five, Saito claimed the first set 6-4, but lost the next two 6-2, 6-0. The decisive fourth point came on court number one where Navarra defeated Thompson 7-5,  3-6, 6-4.
 
"I was happy with how Logan Thompson, a freshman, came back and fought hard to win the second set," noted Basham. "He got up a break in the third set, but didn't quite get over the hump to win that match."
 
On the fourth court, Alleman won the first set 6-4, but fell 6-3, 6-3 in the second and third.
 
The Warriors will travel tomorrow to Ramona for a match on Saturday morning with #13 San Diego Christian (0-0).