By Jacob Norling
March 5, 2024
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) For Westmont Tennis on Tuesday, both the men's and women's teams were unable to break through against the Concordia Golden Eagles. In the morning, Westmont's women lost on campus by a score of 6-1, and in the afternoon, the scene shifted to the Santa Barbara Polo Club where the men suffered the same result.
 
For the women, Westmont's lone point of the day once again came on six, where Justie Spitzer came away with a win for the second day in a row. On six, Spitzer defeated Alicia Da Re 6-0, 6-2. Unfortunately for Westmont, the team could not win a single set elsewhere, on top of being swept in doubles.
 
"Concordia was really solid, I don't think we played poorly," said Westmont head coach Cade Pierson. "In doubles, our injuries showed again today with us having to play with unfamiliar pairings again. With that, some of our new pairings did play better today than they did yesterday. We had other pairings that didn't play as well as they'd want, but against a team like this, it would've taken a lot to beat them even with more comfort.
 
"In singles, Justie had another really solid win at six. It was great to see her take control of her match early, once again. Elsewhere, I think the length of yesterday's match got to us a bit recovery-wise. For us, looking how to recover better in-between matches is something we need to figure out.
 
"Still, I think we competed well despite the fact that we were tired and hurting. We're going to need to find that next gear as we continue to play competition like we did today. We're excited to rest, and then run it back this weekend."
 
For the men, a promising start ended in disappointment, after Westmont's lone point of the day came in doubles. Austin Stone and Ethan Ha got Westmont an early advantage with a 6-1 win on court one, but after CUI took number three, the doubles point came down to court two.
 
In heroic fashion, Logan Thompson and Owen Vander Ark won a tiebreaker over Mario Aleksic and Spencer Cinco by a score of 7-6 (3). Following the early thrill, however, Westmont would go on to win only one set in singles.
 
The lone set victory came on six, where Preston Hastings went on top early with a 6-2 set-win, but he was unable to finish the job after dropping sets two and three to Lemiel Tairahoy (6-2, 6-3). On one, Stone lost a first-set tiebreaker that would've given him an early advantage, and on two, Thompson was unable to tie his match in the second set after initially leading 5-0.
 
In the end, Stone fell to Mattis La Montagner 7-6 (6), 6-2, and Thompson fell to Max Renz 6-2, 7-5.
 
"There was a great start to our match today," offered Westmont head coach Chris Elwood. "We started off slow against Whittier in our last match, so it was nice to start out strong and beat a quality team at number one and two.
 
"As I think about this match, though, against a strong Concordia team, I feel like this was a missed opportunity for us. There were several places where we could have seized the moment and just didn't. We had set points on one, four, and two, and at number five we were close at certain points as well."
 
Elwood continued, "Overall, the guys are so close. We just didn't rise to the occasion today. We're going to go into the rest of the week preparing stronger mentally for our matches this weekend. I hope this can be a good learning experience as we move forward and transition in the future from singles to doubles."
 
Both teams return to competition this Saturday in Santa Barbara.