MOBILE, Ala. — Twelfth-ranked Westmont Men’s Tennis season came to an end when they were defeated by No. 5 Campbellsville, 5-2, at the NAIA National Tournament on Wednesday.
In doubles, the Warriors went down 0-2 when No. 3 Tommy Nightingale and Jordan Strandness were defeated by Mario Belloni and Adrian Sabrojo 8-5 and Luke Whalen and John Joens fell to Brendan Aguilar and Victor Ahlbeck 3-8 playing at No. 2. Westmont’s Christian Mathis and Philipp Sibbel earned the Warriors’ first point when they conquered Chrys Castro and Alejandro Reyes, 8-6.
“I knew they were going to be tough and they certainly were,” reflected head coach Mark Basham of Campbellville (25-2) “Doubles was pretty good for us actually and I was especially happy with how Christian and Phillip played at No. 1. They proved that they are a top-ten team in the NAIA and they really gave us a fighting chance by winning their match.”
The Warriors embarked upon singles play down 2-1 and would have to win four of six singles matches to win the overall match.
The Tigers earned two more points when they were victorious at Nos. 5 and 6 singles: Belloni defeated Nightingale 6-4, 6-2 and Castro downed Barnard 6-0, 6-7, 6-1. Westmont’s Sibbel reduced the gap to two, when he conquered Reyes 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).
The Warriors needed to win out in order to win the overall match. Joens and Whalen were each down a set and in the midst of a tiebreaker in the second set, while Mathis was up a set and in the midst of a second set when ultimately Aguilar defeated Whalen in the tiebreaker to win the overall match 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).
“I thought we battled super hard in singles and there was a moment where I thought we may be able to pull it off,” explained Basham. “I think we showed a lot of heart and fight and grit. Overall, it was a really good season for us and we maximized what we had.”