Eighth-ranked Westmont Men’s Tennis suffered a 6-3 loss to #9 Xavier (La.) on Tuesday but rebounded on Thursday with a 7-2 Golden State Athletic Conference win over Hope International. The Warriors (8-7 4-5 GSAC), are currently in sixth-place in the GSAC standings – a conference that features six of the top ten teams in the NAIA.
Against Xavier, the Warriors dropped the first three singles matches along with number five. Westmont’s Lukas Zielen, playing at number four, ground out a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win over Steffan Giles-Osborn while at number six, Nicholas Szyndlar defeated Sean Richardson 7-5, 6-1.
Xavier’s Loic Didavi defeated Bryan Cox at number one 6-4, 6-2 while Zach Taylor defeated Rodrigo Schaefer 6-0, 6-2 at number two. At number three, Viktor Svoboda edged out Tim Goranson 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5). Playing at number five, Amir Rahbar defeated Westmont’s Joshua Barnard 7-5, 6-4.
Westmont needed to win all three doubles matches to come from behind and claim the victory. While the battles at number one and three were very close, Westmont’s only win came on the number two court where Goranson and John Bertram defeated Richardson and Giles-Osborn 8-3.
At number one doubles, Didavi and Taylor snuck past Cox and Schaefer 9-8 (9). Svoboda and Corey Huggins produced a 9-8 (3) victory over Zielen and Barnard.
Thursday’s match against Hope International was made easier when the Royals showed up with just five players. As a result, Westmont earned two points by forfeit – one for #6 singles and one for #3 doubles.
The Warriors then swept the remaining singles matches to claim the victory. Goranson played at number one and defeated Tulio Amaral 6-0, 6-0. At number two, Rodrigo Schaefer defeated John-Douglas Owens 7-5, 6-1. On the number three court, Bertram notched a 6-0, 6-1 win over Thiago Brito while at number four Barnard won 6-0, 6-2. Nick Szyndlar played at number five and swept Joshua Feichter 6-0, 6-0.
Hope International picked up their points at one and number two doubles. At number one, Amaral and Owens defeated Szyndlar and Jack Lorentsen 8-3. At number two, Brito and McDonald won 9-8 (0) over Gerrit Dickey and Brennan Patton.
The Warriors do not play again until Saturday, April 14 when the travel to San Diego to take on the #6 Sea Lions of Point Loma Nazarene.
