LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Tennis hosted future PacWest Conference foe, Concordia-Irvine at the Biola Tennis Center for a pair of eagerly anticipated matches on Tuesday.
 
The men's team battled through a grueling contest and ultimately suffered a hard fought 5-4 loss. It was the second tough one in a row for a team that was definitely in the hunt for wins in each of its last two outings, both ending with 5-4 disadvantages.
 
"The men's team is fighting hard and competing with teams we haven't been able to in the past," said Head Coach David Goodman. "It's disappointing to lose this match, but we have seen steady improvement since we started in the fall season. If we want to beat the better teams we are going to keep improving both individually and as a group."
 
The women's team suffered a 9-0 loss at the hands of a Concordia-Irvine team that is traditionally near the top of its conference standings, both when it was in the GSAC and now that it is in the PacWest.
 
The men split singles in half with Concordia, which meant the entire match hung in the balance as things progressed to doubles and the day got later and later. The Eagles would ultimately only be able to win on doubles contest as David Garcia and Derek James combined for an 8-6 win at the no. 3 spot.
 
The other two matches were closely contested, but Concordia would end up with a significant edge in each and win the match. The clinching matchup ended up being No. 2 doubles, which was last off the court and saw Phil Westwood and Jacob Vanderbeek suffer a tough 8-5 loss.
 
Getting back to singles, not only were the matches split at three per team, but just about all of those matches were deadlocked and pushed the players to the brink. Two of the six matches needed a third set and four different sets went past six games as the student-athletes battled to the brink. The two teams split the three-set matches, with Philip Westwood winning one at No. 2 and David Garcia coming so close at No. 2.
 
Derek James at No. 3 and Milos Zoric at No. 6 were the two other Biola players to earn singles victories. James improved to 3-0 in singles this season and Zoric earned a win in his first official match for Biola.
 
The men's team dropped to 1-2 following its tough loss. The women fell to 2-4 overall. Men's Tennis is back at it at coach Goodman's alma mater, Azusa Pacific, at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.