Men’s Tennis falls to Grinnell, battles Hamline

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Falcons dropped a match 9-0 to Grinnell before falling in a 5-4 battle with Hamline on Tuesday. 

THE BASICS
-Final Score: Grinnell 9, Concordia Wisconsin 0 | Hamline 5, Concordia Wisconsin 4
-Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3,1), Singles (4,3,2,6,1,5) | Doubles (2,1,3), Singles (1,2,3,6,5,4)
-Location: USTA National Campus – Orlando, Fla.
-Records: Concordia Wisconsin 5-6, Grinnell 10-3, Hamline 4-6

HOW IT HAPPENED
-The Falcons were swept in their opening match of the day by the Pioneers.
-In the second match, the Falcons jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles.
-The Pipers went on to take the other two doubles matches, resulting in the Falcons moving to the singles matches down 2-1.
-Hamline got wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles spots to take a 4-1 lead, needing just one more point to win the match.
-The Falcons made it difficult for them. Peter Kloda (Morton Grove, Ill.) won his No. 3 singles match 6-4, 6-1 to cut the score to 4-2.
-Nathan Raskin (Shorewood, Wis.) followed with a three-set win at No. 6 singles. The junior won the first 6-3, lost the second 6-7, and then took the third 10-7.
-Now trailing 4-3, the Falcons evened up the match with Tim Peters' (Slinger, Wis.) win at the No. 5 spot. The freshman rallied from a 6-4 first-set loss to win the second 6-1 and the third 10-6.
-Even at 4-4, the match came down to the No. 4 singles match. Gabe Binversie (Plymouth, Wis.) rallied from a 6-7 loss in the first set to win the second 7-6. Their third set tiebreaker ended as the Piper's Tou Ger Xiong closed the match with an 11-9 win, taking the match for Hamline.

UP NEXT
-The Falcons challenge Western New England and UW-Superior on Thursday, March 21.