The men’s tennis team fell to Vanguard University and Brigham Young University-Hawaii on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21. The two losses bring their overall record to 3-4 and their Golden State Athletic Conference record to 2-3.
Biola faced another tough conference opponent on Feb. 20 in Vanguard. Vanguard currently sits at the top of GSAC standings. The Eagles fell to the Lions 0-9.
The next day, the men took on the dominant NCAA DIV. II Brigham Young University-Hawaii on Feb. 21. BYU-Hawaii went into the match with only one loss in their season.
The Eagles had a huge win in doubles against the Seasiders. Freshmen duo Joe Turnquist and David Garcia defeated Ibrahim Karmadzhe and Colton Pate 8-6 to put the match at 2-1 going into singles.
The Eagles could not pull out another win in the singles matches. Freshman Phillip Westwood split sets between his opponent and lost in the tiebreaker. Garcia also took his opponent to a tiebreaker, but did not convert the match point.
“Playing them showed us the type of tennis Biola needs to play to be successful in the future,” head coach Brent Worthington said. “BYU-Hawaii is in the Pac-west conference that Biola will most likely join in three years. We saw what a successful tennis team was like and saw that we can compete with them and aren't too far off from beating a team of their caliber.”
The men have an opportunity to break their four match losing streak against Westmont University on Feb. 28. Westmont is currently second in the GSAC with a 4-3 record.
“We have to keep in mind the importance of being consistently competitive at all nine spots,” Worthington said. “Even though tennis is an individual sport in many ways it requires all nine spots to play well for us to succeed. We need to know they are a great team, top 10, and we are going to have to play very well to do well. But we also need to believe and be confident that we can compete with a school like Westmont before going onto the court.”