By Jimmy Friery
April 3, 2026

(ATHERTON, Calif.) Westmont Men's Tennis (10-8) ended their three-day road trip with a gutsy comeback victory over Menlo (5-7) on Friday. Down 3-1, the Warriors won the final three singles matches to take home a 4-3 win in front of a passionate crowd of Oaks fans.

"It was an invigorating atmosphere," head coach Chris Elwood said. "Menlo is a very tough team—they beat a Division I school this year (Illinois State). We knew it was going to be a tough environment. They have a big fan base, so for us to pull out a win on the road, it's a good way to finish our road trip up here."

After losing 4-3 on Wednesday at Fresno Pacific, the Warriors beat Jessup 7-0 on Thursday. Thus, this match over Menlo was important as it decided whether it would be a winning road trip or not. Not only did the 4-3 win earn some redemption for Wednesday's 4-3 loss, it also clinched the season double over the Oaks—Westmont prevailed in the first matchup between the teams on Feb. 21 at the Abbott Tennis Courts, also 4-3.

However, the Warriors lost the doubles point. Menlo won 6-2 and 6-3 on courts one and three, respectively, preventing Diego De Cooman and Zach Steinberg—who were down 5-4—from finishing their match on court two.

Then, Driss Sedrati got the Warriors their first point with a swift 6-3, 6-1 win in number two singles. Shortly after, though, number three Rafael Matias dropped a tight 7-5, 6-4 match to give Menlo the lead back.

All four of the remaining singles matches went to three sets, emphasizing just how even the matchup was. Diego De Cooman fell in a polarizing 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 match on court one to give the Oaks a 3-1 advantage. Westmont would need to win all of the last three matches to win the contest.

Diego's brother, Antoine, had his back, coming back from a 6-3 first-set loss to win the next two 6-0, 6-3 on court four. Number five JD Drake and number six Sidharth Maharana both had won first-set tiebreakers (7-3 and 8-6, respectively), but lost their second sets.

"[Maharana] played a terrific third set, which brought the match to three-all," Elwood said. "So it came down to freshman JD Drake, who has just been playing so well lately."

Maharana flipped a 6-4 second-set defeat for a decisive 6-3 third-set win. All attention turned toward Drake, who clinched last week's win over Missouri-St. Louis.

The stakes were a little higher this time, though, as it was a winner-take-all for the overall team match. Drake coolly responded from a 6-3 second-set loss with an emphatic 6-1 third-set victory, once again clinching a match for the Warriors.

"There were a lot of heroic efforts and I was really proud of our team after we lost the doubles point," Elwood concluded. "Couldn't be prouder in terms of the effort and quality of play from the Warriors today."

Westmont returns home, albeit briefly. Their next match is on Monday at 2 p.m. at Azusa Pacific before returning home next Saturday against Point Loma.