IRVINE — The Westmont men’s tennis (1-1, 1-0 GSAC) opened up its conference slate Saturday in thrilling fashion, getting the better of the Westcliff Warriors (0-3, 0-1 GSAC) down in Irvine. The men were swept in doubles play, but bounced back to take four of six singles matches and steal the match from the home-Warriors.
In doubles play, Felix Veyhle and Max Mueller defeated Logan Thompson and Ethan Ha 7-6 on court one. On court two, Saar Rogovski and Antoine Talamandier defeated Westmont’s Joseph Hemry and Owen Vander Ark 7-5. On the third court, Westmont’s Benny Saito and Tristan Wright fell to Thallys Santos and Alexandre Campolina 5-4.
The road-Warriors were quick to turn the match around, taking the first three singles matches of the day to claim their first lead. First, on court two, Ha defeated Mueller in comeback fashion, taking the final two sets in convincing fashion after dropping the first set 6-2.
Then, on court one, Thompson followed up a narrow 7-6 victory in set one by taking command of his match against Veyhle in set two. Thompson claimed the match with a 6-1 victory in the second set. On court four, Wright capped off Westmont’s three-point run with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Fridolin Goetz.
Making things all the more interesting, Westmont’s Santiago Tintore Ramon and Vander Ark dropped consecutive matches on courts six and three. Therefore, the match came down to court five, where Saito, Westmont’s captain, was battling Maxi Kocher.
After winning the first set 6-1, Saito dropped the second set to Kocher by a score of 6-2. Fortunately, for the road-Warriors, Saito responded with a 6-3 win to claim the match, and clinch the GSAC opener for Westmont.
On Friday, Westmont returns to action when they play UC Santa Cruz on the road at 1 p.m.
Then, on Saturday, the club returns to GSAC play when they face William Jessup in Rocklin.
Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.
email: sports@newspress.com
