By Ron Smith
March 5, 2026
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) "This was quite a battle today," said Westmont Men's Tennis head coach Chris Elwood following a 4-2 loss to Hawai'i Hilo on Thursday at the Abbott Tennis Courts. "This was a pretty strong level for us and I was proud of the guys for creating a chance to pull off an upset. We were in it and it was a nail-biter that we lost by the skin of our teeth.
 
"It began in doubles. We have been trying to build our doubles team and today worked well. We won at two and three and this is the best we have played."
 
Diego De Cooman and Rafael Matias won at number two doubles, defeating Angel Fonseca and Sergi Tintore by a score of 7-5. At number three, Gideon Vethan and Jarrett Navarat went the distance against Jaime Paquet and Filippo Di Perna with a 7-6 (7-5) victory to secure the doubles point for Westmont.
 
"This is the best we have played," said Elwood about his doubles teams. "At number one doubles, Driss Sedrati and JD Drake had match point at 40-15, 6-5 but did not finish due to the clinch rule.
 
"So, we started off with a lot of momentum. I am really proud of the guys for the efforts they put against a tough squad.
 
"Going into singles, we knew we were going to have to play solid throughout the line-up to pull off an upset today. That started with Antoine De Cooman. That is the best I have seen him play and he won in straight sets to give us a 2-0 lead."
 
De Cooman defeated Tintore 6-0, 6-2 at number four singles.
 
"Then we had a three-setter at one, a three-setter at three and a three-setter six," recalled Elwood. "We were leading the three-setter at six. Driss was up a break in the third when it was stopped due to darkness. Sid (Sidharth Maharana) lost a very close match at six, with the score 6-4 in the third. Number one was just tremendous tennis. Rafa played a terrific second set, but just ran out of gas against one of the strongest players in the conference.
 
Matias lost 6-3 in the first set on number one to Paquet before winning the second 7-6 (7-5). However, Paquet won the final set 6-0. At six singles, Maharana lost to David Krnavek 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. Sedrati and Di Perna played to tallies of 6-3, 4-6, 2-0 before darkness fell.
 
"We had chances at number two with Diego, who had two close sets, and at number five."
 
Diego De Cooman lost 6-4, 6-4 to Max Solano on court number two. Zach Steinberg fell 6-3, 6-4 to Matthieu Wehner at number five.
 
"There are some positives to take from the match, but it is always disappointing to narrowly lose," said Elwood. "I was really proud of the guys for their efforts and am hoping we can bring this into our next few matches."
 
The next match will be on the road as Westmont heads to Claremont to take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (9-0) on Saturday.