By Jacob Norling
February 9, 2026
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Tennis (3-1) fell to #9 Azusa Pacific (3-0) on Monday in Santa Barbara, where the Cougars bested the Warriors 7-0. It was Westmont's first match against a fellow-PacWest school this season.
 
In doubles came the highlight of the day, where JD Drake and Driss Sedrati defeated Soren Grandke and Mathys Pinoit 6-4. Grandke and Pinoit went into the day ranked number six in the nation as a doubles pairing. Outside of that, the Cougars won 6-4 on courts two and three to claim the doubles point.
 
In singles, Westmont's best battle came from Sidharth Maharana at line six, where he forced a third against Leo Weishaupt before falling 4-6, 6-1, 10-7. Antoine De Cooman also threatened to force a third set, but ultimately fell 7-6, 7-5 at line four. Diego De Cooman also nearly won his second said, but he too, fell by a score of 6-2 7-6 at line two. The Cougars also won at one, three, and five in two sets.
 
"The highlight of the day was our number-one doubles," said head coach Chris Elwood. "JD and Driss took out the number-six ranked doubles team in the country.
 
"Overall, the best I can say is that we made APU earn it. We were in a lot of matches, and really, we almost won the doubles point. Sid went into a third-set super-breaker, Diego had set-point at number two, and Driss was up 4-2 in the second. Then on four, Antoine was serving for the first set up 5-3. That match was a dogfight into the second set as well.
 
"Those are four possible points, plus a doubles point as well, so we were definitely in it. We made them earn it. The downside of course, is we didn't collect any points. It's not enough to be close. We have to learn how to finish against the best teams. I was happy with our level of tennis, but unhappy with the fact that we did not take advantage of some of the opportunities we created. We're going to learn from this."
 
On Saturday the Warriors travel down south to take on Point Loma in San Diego.