FULLERTON, Calif. --- Both of Biola's tennis teams jumped back into Golden State Athletic Conference competition on Saturday after a brief hiatus and some non-conference tilts.
 
The Eagles traveled to its closest conference rival Hope International and got a pair of victories to finish off its pair of contests against the Royals with both the men and women's teams going 2-0.
 
Biola Women's Tennis earned an impressive 7-2 win, while the men gave it all they had to escape with a 5-4 victory. The men's team won 8-1 earlier this year, but only because doubles were forfeited by HIU after the Eagles gritted out five match wins in some tight singles competition.
 
"We played well as a team today," said Head Coach David Goodman. "The men's match was a hard-fought and emotional match on both sides. Hope played very well and I give them a lot of credit. We had to play our best tennis to get by them today."
 
The women earned their 7-2 victory by earning wins in every match except No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles. Lauren Lee paired with Brooke Sanford for a decisive 8-1 win at No. 2 doubles and Katie Boesl and Tinisee Kandakai worked together to not allow their opponents a single game in the third doubles pairing.
 
Kandakai and Kelsey Post did the same thing at No. 4 and No. 5 singles as they earned straight-set 6-0; 6-0 victories in a pair of dominating performances.
 
"The focus today was to keep working on the things that we need to improve on," said Goodman. "We have been playing well in doubles and have been competitive in a lot of matches on that side of things. We need to continue to get better in singles to put together more complete matches."
 
Sanford, Lee and Megan Ontiveros also earned wins in a strong singles day for BU. All the wins were straight sets, except for Sanford's at No. 2. She won the first set and dropped the second set in her match before going on to dominate the tiebreaker to earn her second singles win of the year.
 
The men began their match by taking the top two doubles pairings in strong showings. They got a pair of 8-2 wins but lost No. 3 doubles 8-1 to hold a 2-1 advantage heading into singles.
 
"Number 1 doubles is playing like one of the best teams in the country. It's exciting to watch and we are confident that we can beat anybody at that position," said Goodman.
 
The No. 1 pairing of Lucas Lee and Derek James improved to 4-0 together this season.
 
Singles were a dogfight at almost every spot in the lineup. No. 1 needed more than two sets, No. 3 needed more than two sets and No. 5 needed more than two sets as the Eagles and Royals battled for each game.
 
Biola lost all three of those matches that went into the extra tennis, but on a more positive note were the much better side in their three singles wins. A few more lucky bounces and this could have very easily been a 8-1 Biola win.
 
Philip Westwood (no. 2), Luke Mountain (no. 4) and David Garcia (no. 5) were the three Eagles to earn points in singles and clinch the match for BU. All three of them have now won back-to-back singles outings and Westwood became the third Eagle with five singles wins this season.
 
"Singles was a dogfight and ended up splitting three and three," said Goodman. "We need to work on the emotions that we are expressing during the matches. I want the guys to be positive and energetic but there's a fine line between that and showing your emotions in a negative way."
 
Biola Men's Tennis improved to 4-7 (2-3 GSAC) with the win. The women moved to 3-9 (2-3 GSAC). The men host the College of Wooster on Friday for their next match. The women wont play again until March 18 when they host San Diego Christian.