By Jacob Norling
March 1, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Women's Tennis stole a nail-biter from the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds two weeks ago on FPU's home court, but on Saturday in Santa Barbara, the Sunbirds returned the favor by a final of 4-3.
 
"We knew coming in it was going to be a tough match," said head coach Cade Pierson. "After beating them closely last time, we knew we'd have a target on our backs. Still, I don't think the pressure negatively impacted us. I think we competed well, and managed expectations well."
 
In doubles the Warriors took care of business on three, where Justie Spitzer and Francesca Aguirre won in straight sets.
 
Both one and two, however, fell to the Sunbirds in close fashion. On one, Lauren Gee and Johanna Winkler fell 7-5, and on two, Liska Knight and Sophia Ostovany fell 7-6 (6) in a gut-wrenching tiebreaker.
 
In singles, Knight blew past Lily Villagomez 6-0, 6-0 and Sabina Salva out-lasted Malia Mitchell 7-6 (5), 6-2. The Warriors also got a win on three, where Lauren Gee's opponent had to retire. The Sunbirds won in two sets on four, and all eyes fell to courts one and two where there was a pair of three-set matches.
 
On two, Paula out-lasted Ostovany 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 to put the Sunbirds on the brink of victory. On one, Aguirre was unable to follow up on a 6-4 win in set one, ultimately dropping the final two sets 6-3, 6-1 to decide the match.
 
"Across the board, the only real change was in the fact that we didn't get the doubles point," reflected Pierson. "I was still very proud of how we played. On every court we lost, we were much closer than you might think. The growth is there, and we knew this was going to be a dogfight.
 
"There's still so much good, so much to be proud of, but it sucks to play good tennis and lose. It's hard to lose close matches and it's hard to lose them at home. The truth is, though, this was a great match, we're playing good tennis, and there's a lot of tennis left to play.
 
"Now the question is, how can we use this dissatisfaction as fuel for our training? Who we are when we lose says more about us than who we are when we win. This is when we'll get to share who we ar