By Jacob Norling
March 9, 2024
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Tennis played a pair on Saturday, first against the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds, and later on against the Sewanee Tigers. In the morning, FPU defeated Westmont 4-1, and in the afternoon, the Tigers outlasted an exhausted Westmont group 4-3.
 
In the morning against the Sunbirds Westmont's lone win came on two, where Logan Thompson came up victorious with a 6-0, 5-7, 6-4 win in three.
 
Outside of that, however, Westmont dropped matches on both two and three in doubles, which got the Sunbirds out to an early lead. In singles, the Warriors also fell on one, three, and four to give the Sunbirds the early clinch.
 
"That was a tough first match against Fresno," acknowledged Westmont head coach Chris Elwood. "We knew it was going to be tough going in, but I felt that it was going to be pretty evenly matched. To tell you the truth, though, I felt it was a little disappointing.
 
"We came a bit flat in doubles, and just never recovered. Our one did come from Logan, but then Ethan was in a tight three-setter, and Goor was in a second-set tiebreaker as well. We just did not take advantage of our chances during that match."
 
Later on in the day, the Warriors played a hard-fought match against Sewanee, with the Tigers taking a tight-knit doubles point to start the day. A resilient Westmont team, however, saw wins from Austin Stone, Thomson, and Preston Hastings to tie things 3-3.
 
The match came down to a battle on three where Ethan Ha matched up against Sewanee's Quinn Wicklund. Unfortunately for the Warriors, Wicklund prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3) to give the Tigers the win.
 
"This one was a barn-burner," explained Elwood. "Sewanee is the #10 team in Division III, so they're tough. After barely losing the doubles point, our guys bounced back and found a way to get back in it. Austin Stone was playing through the flu, and pulled a bit of an MJ, winning in three.
 
"Logan won in three, and Preston won in three as well. The match came down to Ethan in a third-set tiebreaker and he battled hard. In the end, we just came up short."
 
Still, Elwood was proud of his group at day's end. "This was a physical and mental challenge today, and I'm proud of our guys. These were two very good teams, and for our guys to play even stronger in the second, it says a lot about their fight. They were physically spent, but they just displayed a phenomenal amount of resilience.
 
"That's what sports are all about,"
 
The Warriors return to action on Monday at 2:30 p.m., when they host Bucknell at Westmont.