Biola men’s tennis overpowered Arizona Christian University Firestorm this afternoon by a five-point margin with the final score being 7-2. After the team’s winning opener yesterday against Hastings College of Nebraska, they now sit 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the Golden State Athletic Conference standings.

All singles matches were successful. Senior Tayven Townsend finished last, working for every last point against Santiago Galeffi of ACU. After four intense sets, Townsend came out victorious, ending the final set with a 6-4 win over Galeffi.

Townsend did not stop there. He and doubles partner, senior Brandon Chang, went head-to-head with Galeffi and Tyler Cawthorne of ACU, defeating them 8-2.

“This is our second match. We won yesterday 7-2 and today we already have five points,” senior captain Brandon Chang said. “It’s going really great.”

The team has high hopes for the season, both in performance and team camaraderie.

“[I’m looking forward to] team bonding. That’s important. This is my last year. I’m a senior and I’m just trying to enjoy my last season and bring the team up as the captain,” Chang said.

The women’s tennis team did not bring the momentum from the men’s victory into their matches against ACU. Out of nine total matches, junior #2 player Susan Carmichael was the only player to come out on top, defeating #41 ranked Rafaella Zak Zak of ACU in two easy sets.

Despite the bold win by Carmichael in her singles competition, the doubles match with partner junior Kathryn Ashford ended in a 8-0 loss against Mikayla Morgan and Andrea Crook of ACU.

“The first match is always tough because you don’t really know what to expect from the beginning of the season,” Ashford said, “but I think now we have something to go off of and something to work towards.”

Doubles partners Kelsey Post and Madeline Heer, both sophomores, were closest to defeating their fiery opponents, losing by a margin of 5 points with a score of 8-3.

In the face of loss, though, Ashford looks optimistically at the season ahead.

“I think if anything, it has given us motivation to work extra hard and to realize that in order to compete in this league we will have to step up our game a lot. I think we have the potential to, we just need to tap into that and get down to business.”