The Biola men and women’s tennis teams both traveled down the road to Fullerton to take on Hope International University on March 11. The women took their match 7-2, while the men escaped by the skin of their teeth with a huge 5-4 win.
Women’s singles play opened up with a loss by senior Madeline Heer, defeated by HIU’s Djurdjina Vrhovac 6-2, 6-4. However this proved the only loss in singles for the Eagles as the other five players took wins. Freshman Lauren Lee won in convincing fashion over Haley Robles 6-1, 6-2. Senior Kelsey Post took a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win over Kaylie Garcia. The rest of the singles players performed extremely well helping the Eagles to a 5-1 lead.
Having already secured the match in singles, the doubles partners did not let off the gas. Lee and junior Brooke Sanford continued their winning ways with an 8-1 win over Robles and Jasmine Hyacinth. The partnership of freshman Tinisee Kandakai and sophomore Katie Boesl also took a big win over Garcia and Melody Gauthier 8-0. This finished off the Royals as Biola took a 7-2 victory.
In men’s play, singles matches started with a 6-3, 6-2 win by junior Philip Westwood over Adrien Varenne. Senior Luke Mountain took a decisive 6-0, 6-0 victory over Andres Rivas. Junior David Garcia took a 6-4, 6-2 win over Sergio Romero for the Eagles’ final win in singles. The Royals took the final three singles matches leaving the score 3-3.
The doubles play would decide the outcome of the entire match and the Eagles started with an 8-2 victory from Westwood and Mountain over Avi Bami and Gabriel Bazertti. In the next match Garcia and junior Joe Turnquist lost 8-1 to Romero and Kyle Rae. The last doubles match was won by Lee and freshman Derek James 8-2 over Varenne and Mauricio Mosquera. This gave the Eagles an important 5-4 victory over HIU.
The women improved to 3-9 overall and 2-3 in Golden State Athletic Conference play, while the men improved to 4-7 overall and 2-3 in conference play. The men’s team returns to play at home against the College of Wooster at 2 p.m. on March 17. The women are back in action on March 18 against San Diego Christian College at home at 11 a.m.
