OWATONNA, Minn. – The Carleton College men's tennis team lost to regional foe Grinnell College, 6-1, on Sunday.
Akshay Garapati won a thriller at No. 1 singles to claim the Knights' team point.
"We enjoyed testing ourselves against a formidable team such as Grinnell," said Carleton head coach
Stephan Zweifel. "This should pay dividends when we head into the conference season."
The match started with the Pioneers (7-1) sweeping the three doubles contests. Garapati and
Jack Rivkin lost 6-3 at top the lineup, with
Ezra Bernhard and
Owen Heidtke falling by the same score at the second slot.
Baiyun Jing and
Yihe Zhang teamed up for the first time this season but absorbed a 6-2 setback at No. 3 doubles.
The most exciting matches of the day came at No. 3 and No. 1 singles.
Bernhard dropped the opening set at No. 3 singles and claimed the second set before coming up just short in a super tiebreaker 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (10-8).
Garapati's match against Lucas Willett—a regionally-ranked singles player and the 2025 Midwest Conference singles champion—was even tighter, with the Carleton sophomore fighting off five match points in the second set before eventually claiming a 4-6, 7-6 (13-11), 1-0 (10-8) victory.
"Akshay had to rely on his high school work experience at Burger King to make it through that singles match, as he served up a few whoppers to get himself out of trouble."
Grinnell claimed the other four singles points with straight set victories. Jing lost for the first time since early October when he fell 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 singles. Rivkin lsot at No. 4 singles by a 6-1, 6-2 tally. Heidtke dropped a 6-1, 6-3 result at the fifth spot in the lineup, and
Miles Lee saw his win streak snapped with a 6-1, 6-2 defeat at No. 6 singles.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will return to Owatonna play a pair of matches on Saturday, March 7. The Knights face conference opponent Hamline University at 10:30 a.m. before facing Central College (Iowa) at 3:30 p.m.
