WINONA, Minn. – Thanks to strong play in singles, the Carleton College men's tennis team pulled out a 5-2 victory over Coe College in a neutral-site, non-conference affair on Saturday.
 
The Knights dropped the doubles point but rallied to wrap up the indoor portion of their season with an 11-1 record and an eight-match win streak.
 
The Kohawks (8-4) won at the first two double spots. Bryton Short and Jumpei Kasai bested Jack Rivkn and Akshy Garapati 6-3 atop the lineup while Ivan Burt-Smith and Daniel Rohlman-Velez held off Zach Leslie and Baiyun Jing by a 6-4 tally. Carleton rookies Ezra Bernhard and Aidan Patel improved to 8-2 on the season with their 6-2 triumph over Graham Peterson and Joshua Tiemann at the third slot.
 
When competition shifted to solo play, the Knights got on track.
 
"Our backs were against the wall after dropping the doubles point against an always tough Coe team," said Carleton head coach Stephan Zweifel. "But out guys once again rose to the occasion and took five of the six singles matches to clinch the match."
 
Garapati kept his singles ledger unblemished as he moved to 8-0 on the year as he notched the Knights' first team point with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Kasai at No. 6 singles.
 
Patel raised his record to 11-1 — tied for the Knights' lead in victories — after his 6-4, 6-0 triumph at No. 3 singles inched Carleton ahead in the team competition.
 
Jing won his third straight, topping Burt-Smith at No. 1 singles by a 6-4, 6-4 margin, and Leslie clinched the victory for the Knights thanks to his 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) triumph at No. 5 singles.
 
Jasper Yang pushed his singles record to 11-0 this season with a thrilling 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 result over Short at the second slot.
 
"Jasper is the team's golden doodle," said Zweifel. "He will run down more tennis balls than any other dog in the dog park."
 
Coe was barely able to avoid a singles sweep as Tiemann prevailed over Bernhard at No. 4 singles by a narrow 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (11-9) score.
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will focus on winter term final exams before heading to Kona, Hawaii for the team's annual Spring Break training trip.