By Jacob Norling
April 8, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Tennis ran into NCAA Division III powerhouse Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Tuesday in Santa Barbara, with the Warriors falling to CMS 6-1 in their home finale. Still, the day was not without its highlights, due to the performance of Austin Stone at line one.
 
In a three-set thriller, Stone came back to beat Advik Mareedu, the number-one ranked player at the Division III level. After falling 6-2 in set one, Stone put on a gritty display to defeat Mareedu 7-6 (4) in a tiebreaker in the second, before an even more thrilling 7-6 (6) win in the third.
 
"Austin's win was the highlight of the day," confirmed head coach Chris Elwood. "Regardless of what level he's played, Mareedu had been undefeated all year. Austin gave him his first loss of the year today. Mareedu is a two-time national champion in individuals, so this was a huge win for Austin.
 
"Austin fell down 4-0 in the third set, and just continued to put the work in, eventually pulling even at four-all. It was just a dynamite collegiate tennis match. It was pro-level tennis back and forth, until Austin edged him out in the breaker."
 
Elwood continued, "It was also a great gift to the seniors as we celebrated senior day today. We had all our seniors in the lineup today and it was great to get to honor those guys."
 
Those three seniors were Owen Vander Ark, Preston Hastings, and Goor Adiv.
 
"This was a really special day for the seniors," said Elwood. "We celebrated with, and got to share gifts and words of affirmation with them after the match. I was proud of our fight today, with the two three-setters, and a couple tough two-setters as well. Hopefully we can head into this weekend and play some inspired tennis after Austin's win."
 
Westmont's season will come to a close this weekend, with road matches against Biola and Point Loma.