By Jacob Norling
March 8, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Tennis dropped a pair of matches by a score of 4-3 on Friday and Saturday, first against the Hawaii Pacific Sharks, and secondly against the Sewanee Tigers.
 
On Friday, the Warriors dropped an early doubles point, before a competitive singles showing made the missed opportunity all-the-more bittersweet. On one, Austin Stone continued his stellar season with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win over Mile Matic, and on four, Goor Adiv defeated his counterpart 6-2, 6-4. Westmont's third point came from Antoine De Cooman on six, where the first year outlasted Arthur Pery 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (2).
 
Westmont's closest option elsewhere came on two, where Diego De Cooman fell 5-7 (5), 6-4, 2-6.
 
Reflecting on Friday's match, Chris Elwood said, "HPU is a top-20 team right now, so I think there are some positives to take from this. It came down to a final set, and it just did not go our way, but I was proud of our fight. Particularly, Antoine was great in a third-set tiebreaker, winning his first singles match in conference play. Both players were cramping up in the end, and it was just a really great battle between two Warriors. That's what college tennis is all about. Those guys pushed each other to the very end.
 
"Antoine played a really solid tiebreaker to win that match. Goor was great as well, coming back from some illness earlier this week. He was really able to turn his defense into offense by coming to the net. Then Austin Stone returned to form as well today. He had a really tight first set and then made quick work in the second set. It was great to see him look like himself.
 
On Saturday, the Warriors once again looked to Stone after a failed attempt in doubles, with the best they have getting on the board with a 6-2, 6-0 win in singles. Elsewhere, the De Cooman brothers won their matches 7-5, 6-3 (Diego), and 2-6, 6-4, 12-10 (Antoine). Elsewhere, the Warriors were unable to force a third set.
 
"Sewanee was a tough squad," assured Elwood. "We played them really close. It was another battle for the second day in a row. The highlights today were Austin's straight-set win, and the De Cooman brothers getting it done in singles.
 
"Still, it's time to get back to work. We did not perform well in doubles today, so expect a change in lineup going into our future matchups. We're going to work hard and train to amend this, so we can get that critical doubles point. It was a tough match, but the guys gave it everything they had out there."