The Biola men’s and women’s tennis teams both traveled to Phoenix on March 3 to take on the Arizona Christian University Firestorm in a Golden State Athletic Conference matchup, losing both matches 6-3. The women’s tennis team then returned to action on March 6 against Indiana Wesleyan University at Biola’s Tennis Center, where they lost 7-2.

A hard fought loss

In women’s singles, ACU came out strong with a victory in five out of the six singles matches, but freshman Tinisee Kandakai came away with an impressive win for the Eagles as she defeated the Firestorms’ Autria Compton 6-3, 6-1. All of the other singles matches remained close but the Eagles were not able to close them in the end.

In women’s doubles play, Biola’s combo of freshman Lauren Lee and junior Brooke Sanford took an 8-5 win over ACU’s Melanie Dreux and Compton. The pair of sophomores Katie Boesl and Kandakai took an 8-4 win over Desiree Curiel and Gabby Gutierrez from ACU.

The Eagles fought hard in both doubles and singles and competed well, but the Firestorm ultimately took a 6-3 win.

A close match

The men’s tennis team also played at 12 p.m., starting with a big win from junior Lucas Lee, who defeated ACU’s Alberto Lapiedra 6-3, 6-2. Junior Philip Westwood lost a close match to Enzo Douillac 6-1, 4-6, 7-6. Arizona Christian would go on to take three of the last four singles matchups in close matches.

In doubles, the combo of Lee and freshman Derek James took an 8-4 win over Seth Moore and Lapierda for the Eagle’s lone victory as the Firestorm took the final two doubles matchups. The Eagles men fought hard but took a 6-3 loss in the GSAC matchup.

Three days later, the women played again against Indiana Wesleyan on March 6. Athletes played doubles matchups first, and Lee and Sanford took the only victory for the Eagles, winning 8-4 over Olivia Reed and Ellen Hornett.  

Singles matchups followed, and every player played well and fought hard. However, the Wildcats took five out of the six matchups in close matches. The lone win came from Lauren Lee, who won the final match of the night in a 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 tiebreaker. The Eagles ultimately lost 7-2 but came away with more experience and lessons learned from the battle.

“Our team has been working really hard at practice and we’ve been putting extra work in the weight room and on the courts and we are practicing a lot,” Lee said. “ACU was a very tough match but everyone played their hearts out and each match individually was really close. We hope to beat ACU next time we play them. Again today against Indiana Wesleyan every match we played was close and we played our hearts out but we fell short.”  

The women moved to 2-9 overall and 1-3 in GSAC play, while the men fell to 2-7 overall and 1-3 in conference play. The women’s team plays next at Hope International University on March 11, while the men’s team returns to action against Hastings College on March 10 at 6 p.m. at Biola’s Tennis Center.