LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Men's Tennis made things difficult, if not downright frustrating, for almost every opponent it faced in the 2020 season. 

With a roster largely still intact from the year prior, Head Coach David Goodman's group added sophomore Alexei Prokopchuk to the No. 1 singles position and quickly established their persona for the season: the Eagles were either going to dispatch their opponent with ease or they were going to be the toughest competition the other team would face all year.

That narrative had its first major plot point on February 4 when the Eagles hosted longtime rival Westmont College at the Biola Tennis Center. 

In 2019, the headline was that Biola had defeated the Warriors for the first time in 12 years. But the 2020 matchup was all about the pace at which Goodman's group clinched against Westmont. 

The Eagles clinched the match just 90 minutes after doubles began, sweeping the doubles point and all six singles courts to win 7-0. Prokopchuk, Derek James and Edwyn Ramos all won their singles matches while dropping two games or fewer while Quentin Lau wrapped up the bagel with a 10-7 win in the superbreaker. 
From there, Biola would push UC San Diego, Azusa Pacific and Concordia to long matches that were decided by a single point. 

The Eagles forced at least two three-set singles matches against each opponent and saw Prokopchuk take a singles point in all three contests. Biola was within a third-set tiebreak of beating top-ranked Azusa Pacific at the BTC, swept Concordia in doubles and played so well against UC San Diego on February 8 that the Tritons shuffled their lineup for the next meeting in an attempt to mitigate the very real possibility of an upset. 

But the memory of those close losses was soon eclipsed by a four-match win streak that included two convincing wins over PacWest opponents. The stretch started with a gritty 5-4 win over Redlands that saw Biola win two doubles points and earn victories in the top three singles flights. Logan Blair took on the closing role as he and James both won sets two and three to snatch the win for their team. 

Blair would win the first tiebreaker of his season in the third set to clinch Biola's third win of the season. It was the Oregon-native's second three-set singles win of the year and marked the second time he won both his doubles and singles matches on the same day. 

Just three days later, the Eagles raced past Hope International 4-1 in a paltry one hour and 31 minutes. Andres Meneses finished his singles match first by a score of 6-2, 6-2 and won his third of four wins at the Biola Tennis Center in 2020. Then after Prokopchuk finished another W at No. 1, Lau won four games in a row to seal his match for the clincher. 

Biola's first match against a PacWest opponent came on February 28 against Holy Names and sparked a bunch of optimism for Biola's future standing in the conference pecking order. 

The Eagles handled everything the Hawks could throw at them and still won with ease. Biola won all three doubles matches even after all three courts were on serve through two changeovers. And Prokopchuk overcame a 5-3 deficit in his second set by rattling off four straight games to win in straights, 6-3, 7-5. 

Goodman's group earned their feel-good win of the year the following Monday when the Eagles defeated Point Loma Men's Tennis for the first time in program history. That also came by a 5-2 score and included a success the Eagles would repeat in seven-consecutive matches to end the season: win the doubles point. James and Ramos then waltzed through singles while Meneses and Prokopchuk won in three sets again to earn the historic win for the program. 

Led by Lau's 9-2 record in doubles and his 7-1 mark with teammate Derek James, the Eagles would go 22-8 in that phase of their dual matches. Prokopchuk went 9-1 at the No. 1 singles position for Biola and will take an active six-match singles winning streak into the 2021 season. 

"The future is bright," said Head Coach David Goodman. "Every year we have been building upon the success of the prior year. This next year we will continue to do the same. We are on the verge of something special."

This year Biola Men's Tennis equaled its number of wins from its first season in the PacWest (2018) in half the number of matches. But there's no question the Eagles will be after even more ambitious goals in 2021, making some big noise at the PacWest tournament being first on the list.