LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The 2017 Biola Men's Tennis season is setup to be a pretty fantastic one. The Eagles began the year with a bang on Saturday morning as they worked an 8-1 victory over Golden State Athletic Conference foe Hope International.
 
The match looks like a blowout, but in actuality it was a hard-fought, dramatic and well-earned win over a much-improved Hope International team.
 
The Eagles won singles 5-1 and then Hope International's coach informed Biola's new coach, David Goodman, that they would be forfeiting the doubles matches in order to avoid injury and fatigue early in the season.
 
"It's a huge win for us," said Philip Westwood. "The start of the season has been a long time coming for us, and this team is definitely a lot tougher than they were last year. Starting off with a win gives us great confidence."
 
Those five wins at singles were punctuated by three gritty three-set victories at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5.

David Garcia and Derek James earned quick straight-set victories at the outset before Lucas Lee, Joe Turnquist and Philip Westwood both worked through matches of over two hours a piece to lock things down for BU.
 
Lee's was the first three-setter to finish up. He dominated the first set of his match to win 6-2 and almost locked down a win in a tiebreaker during the second set, but fell just short as his opponent rallied.
 
His third set was one of the most dramatic parts of the entire match as he flipped the script on a 5-4 deficit to end up winning 7-5 and starting a ripple of major momentum for his two teammates still playing.
 
Turnquist, playing on the court all the way in the back corner of the complex, was waging war with his opponent Gabriel Bazertti, from start to finish. He won the first set 7-5 and then hit a stumbling block in the second as Bazertti worked a 6-3 win.

The third set was just as close as the first and the man with momentum, Bazertti, jumped out to an early lead. Turnquist rallied though, winning the final four games of the match to bring himself a 6-3 victory in the match.
 
Just a moment before Turnquist locked things down on his court Biola's No. 1, Westwood, had come-from-behind to take a 6-5 lead in his third set. Naturally, everyone from the far court ran over to Westwood's and all eyes were on the two top-position men as they battled it out.
 
With the added motivation of knowing he could clinch the whole match for Biola by winning one more game, Westwood got the job done and earned the 7-5 victory that brought everything to 5-1.

The mental and physical determination exhibited by Westwood was quite the sight to behold. He spent 75 percent of his fifth set win serving the ball underhand because of pain in his back. However, as he gained momentum late in the set he switched back to overhead serve and caught his opponent off guard.
 
"Your teammates and the supporters are critical [in close matches]," said Westwood. "Knowing everyone is behind you, and looking across and seeing everyone supporting you is what gives you that extra push."
 
Biola becomes 1-0 (1-0 GSAC), while Hope International falls to 0-1 (0-1 GSAC). The Eagles' next match is this upcoming Friday at 3:00 p.m. on the road against Caltech.