HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Th Carleton College men's tennis team came up short in its Spring Break trip finale, falling 5-2 to DePauw University on Friday.
The Knights (12-4) captured the doubles point as the No. 16-ranked duo of
Akshay Garapati and
Jack Rivkin prevailed 6-4 over Finley Buelte and William Cramer atop the lineup, while the first-time pairing of
Baiyun Jing and
Ezra Bernhard notched a 6-2 triumph over Paul Castleman and Viktor Ronnberg at the third slot.
Bernhard added Carleton's lone victory in singles, securing a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Ronnberg at the fourth spot in the lineup to improve to 4-1 on the trip with the lone setback coming in a super tiebreaker.
"Ezra's style of play is brutal in its simplicity," said Carleton head coach
Stephan Zweifel, "simply run after more tennis balls than a rambunctious labradoodle."
The Tigers (9-6) won the other singles matches in straight sets. Buelte defeated No. 34-ranked Garapati by a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) tally atop the flight. Scott Anderson edged Jing 6-3, 6-2 at the second spot. Castleman topped
Zach Leslie 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3 singles, with Thomas Hargreave besting Rivkin 6-3, 6-1 at the fifth slot.
Owen Heidtke lost to Filippo Fassone 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6 singles.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton returns home for the start of spring term classes and next competes on Wednesday, April 1 with a 4:30 p.m. match at Bethel University.
