Westmont College Athletics

By Jacob Norling
March 1, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) For the second time in as many matchups this season the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds took care of the Westmont Warriors (1-7) on Saturday, when FPU left Santa Barbara with a 6-1 win. Westmont will enter Thursday's match against Jessup still looking for their win against a PacWest opponent.
 
Thursday's match will be game four of a season-long six-match homestand.
 
Today's match saw the Warriors win at number one singles 6-3 thanks to Austin Stone and Goor Adiv, but the Warriors were unable to take advantage of the opportunity to clinch an early doubles point. On two, the De Cooman brothers fell 6-3, and on three, Owen Vander Ark and Jonathan Ball fell 6-4.
 
In singles, the Warriors lone point came on five, where Vander Ark walked away with a 6-3, 6-3 win. Elsewhere, Stone fell 6-3, 7-5 in a tight match on one, and Diego De Cooman fell in a three-setter on two 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7). Sid Maharana also lost in three sets on four, by a score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
 
"It was a real dogfight today," assured head coach Chris Elwood. "It really felt like it was coming down to the wire. Val had a set-point in the second set, Diego had match-point at one moment, and Sid was up 3-1 in the third set as well. Austin had also battled back to five-all in the second as well. This was after Owen sealed a point, and for a moment, you could see how close we were to making this a close match.
 
"The guys really brought it today. I thought it was a complete flip-flop from our performance in Fresno. We were in this one, and it could have been ours. For us to be as close as we were on so many courts shows tremendous improvement. Big shoutout to Owen Vander Ark. He's not only been leading the team so well this year as a captain, but hw played some of the best serve and volley tennis I've ever seen from him today.

"As a team, we are so close, so close. We just have to keep working hard and improving."