Muristek
LA JOLLA — The Westmont men’s tennis (4-7, 4-2 GSAC) went toe-toe with the GSAC’s best Saturday and fell to No. 13 San Diego Christian (12-6, 5-0 GSAC) by a score of 4-0.
After the Hawks took the doubles point, the Warriors had an uphill battle and were unable to overcome the deficit.
“San Diego Christian has been a tough team for us for the past few years,” said Westmont Head Coach Mark Basham. “They’re a very good team and could definitely be a top-10 team in the NAIA. We’ve been doing well against teams we could hang with, but today we played a team that was really talented.”
In doubles, the Hawks bested the Warriors on all three courts, including an impressive victory over Ethan Ha and Logan Thompson on one. Going into the match, Ha and Thompson were 10-1 as a pair in doubles, but on Saturday, they fell 6-3 to Chris Papa and Luis Hochenauer.
On two, Joseph Hemry and Owen Vander Ark fell to Nick Nienhaus and Julius Kaufman 6-2, and on three, Santiago Tintore Ramon and Benny Saito fell to Robin Van den Hoek and Laurenz Grabia by the same score.
“Not doing well in the three doubles matches definitely made our job that much harder,” Basham said. “They took it to us. We had won 10 of 11 on one before today, so they really played well.”
In singles, the Hawks were quick to put away the Warriors, not needing a single third set before the match’s conclusion. On two, Ha fell to Nienhaus 6-1, 6-2, and on three, Hemry fell to Hochenauer 6-4, 6-1.
On one, Papa defeated Thompson 6-4, 6-2. In a rather quick match, the Hawks clinched after the first three results to win it 4-0.
“In singles, Logan got off to a good start but then ended up losing the set 6-4,” Basham said. “Logan was playing a very high level of tennis on one. Tristan Wright was a highlight on five, where he won the first set and was up 3-2 before the match was called.
“Owen was 5-5 in the second set, after losing the first, and he was battling. It wasn’t all bad. I was happy with our guys’ effort, it was just a tough go against a good team today.”
The Warriors will return to the court at 2 p.m. Tuesday when they host Williams (Mass.) in Montecito. The club has just one GSAC match remaining, on April 9 against Marymount, before beginning play in the GSAC Tournament.
Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.
email: sports@newspress.com
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