By Jacob Norling
February 9, 2024
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Women's Tennis dropped their second match of the season on Friday afternoon, this time a one-sided affair against the Biola Eagles. Westmont could muster only one set against the Eagles, who walked away with a 7-0 win in dominant fashion.
 
In doubles, Lily McNeill and Colbeyshae Emery bested Sophia Ostovany and Liska Knight 6-0, and on three, Isabella Chavarria and Breanna Hiebert defeated Arden Samuels and Sabina Salva 6-2.
 
The Warriors were competitive on one where, at time of clinch, Francesca Aguirre and Olivia Madarang were trailing Brooke Fager and Alexandria Mann 5-4.
 
"A common theme for us is looking for little victories," said Westmont head coach Cade Pierson. "It was a challenging week with weather, not being able to be out on the courts as much as we would have liked. We knew today was going to be tough, because Biola is a tough opponent regardless, but also because of the lack of practice this week.
 
"Getting into those little victories, though, our ones played an amazing match in doubles. That's the best doubles team in the conference, Fager and Mann won ITA's, it would have been great to see that match finish. On two and three, we just had slow starts against good opponents.
 
"Doubles was our strength last week, but this week, we just weren't quite there."
 
In singles, Aguirre played another competitive match, but fell 6-3, 7-5 to Emery. Outside of that, Knight's performance on six was the other outlier, where she took the first set from Hiebert 6-2. Following the first set, however, Hiebert bounced back with a 6-2 win, before winning a 10-7 tiebreaker to end the day.
 
Outside of that, McNeil defeated Madarang on two (6-3, 6-1), Fager bested Samuels on three (6-2, 6-1), Mann defeated Ostovany on four (6-0, 6-1), and Chavarria got the better on Salva on five (6-0, 6-1).
 
"Francesca stood out in singles," noted Pierson. "She had a really good match, and it just became a matter of execution against a really good opponent. She just didn't execute enough, but I'm excited to see those two play again when we face Biola on the road.
 
"On other courts, I think it was noticeable that we're still young, and we're still early in our season. Building confidence in different ways is going to be key for us. For some, they're trying to build confidence in their physical ability, coming back from injuries. For others, it's just a matter of building confidence in their ability to compete at the collegiate level.
 
"As we train more, I think you'll see less of the technical errors you saw today, and we'll play more sound tennis."
 
The women return to action on Monday at 9:00 a.m., when they play host Azusa Pacific on Westmont's campus.