HILTON HEAD, S.C. – The Michigan Tech men's tennis team came up short 6-1 to Missouri-St. Louis in match three of the Spring Tennis Fest tournament held in Hilton Head, South Carolina Wednesday. The Huskies locked down their first win of the year Tuesday with a 7-0 shutout of Kutztown in match two of the tournament.
"Today we fought really hard, but we came up just short in crucial moments," Michigan Tech Head Coach Kristin Yep said. "It was an eye opener to what we need to work on to break through to the next level."
Missouri-St. Louis (4-0) established a 1-0 lead in Wednesday's match by taking all three doubles contests against Michigan Tech (1-2). Vitor Jordao and Nico Caviglia put up a tough battle in No. 1 doubles, trading point for point with Karl Heinrichs and Vitor Monteiro until late in the match. Unfortunately, the Tritons ended up getting the win via a 6-4 decision. Siddhesh Mahadeshwar and Andrew Freel fell to Ben-Hur Kasprzak and Milan Kovacs in No. 2 doubles 6-1 and Artem Sharkota and Ignacio Carbajosa lost to Adrian Lessing and Jose Mayorga 6-0 in the No. 3 spot.
Jordao played a solid match in No. 1 singles for Tech, but ended up falling to Kasprzak in three sets 6-2, 3-6, and 6-10. Freel also took Lessing to three sets in No. 3 singles, falling behind 4-6 before battling back to even the match with a 6-2 second set win. Unfortunately, Lessing took the win with a 10-5 decision in his favor during set three. Carbajosa took an early advantage over Heinrichs in No. 4 singles and won the point when Heinrichs was forced to retire.
In the other three singles contests Wednesday, Caviglia lost to Monteiro 6-4, 6-4 in No. 2 singles while Mahadeshwar came up just short against Kovacs 6-3, 6-3 in the No. 5 spot. Arvind Kalyana wrapped up the match in No. 6 singles, but suffered a 6-3, 6-1 setback to Mayorga.
The Huskies will look to bounce back on Thursday when they play West Liberty in match four of the Spring Tennis Fest tournament. The first serve is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. eastern time.
