Oberlin, Ohio - In its North Coast Athletic Conference opener, the Oberlin College men's tennis team went swing-for-swing with the visiting DePauw University Tigers for over five and half hours inside the John W. Heisman Field House, but in the end, it was DePauw who left town with a 6-3 victory. 

The two foes would split first and third doubles, leaving the No. 2 battle to determine who would carry the 2-1 advantage heading into singles action. The top Oberlin billing of James Dill and Grant North fell 8-2, but the No. 3 tandem of Shawn Lisann and Sebastien Naginski would level the match with an 8-4 victory over Chase Hutchinson and Jacob Louiselle. 

The No. 2 battle was nip-and-tuck throughout, but ultimately it was the Yeomen pairing of Rohan Gold and Sean Billerbeck who eked out an 8-7 (7-4) tiebreak victory to secure their third straight win and fourth in the last five matches. 

Billerbeck would upend Thomas Partridge by matching 6-4 counts in the top singles flight, but unfortunately that would be the Yeomen's lone win in one-on-one action. However, four of the remaining five battles all went a full three sets to determine a winner. 

Lisann was a 7-5 set-one winner over Ryan McCook at No. 3, but the Yeomen rookie would drop the second set by the reversed 7-5 count and McCook would use that momentum for a 6-1 win in the third. 

After falling 2-6 in the opening set in the fourth position, Naginski prevailed 6-4 in the second only to finish on the wrong end of a gut-wrenching 6-7 tiebreak loss to Louiselle. 

Dill, a senior from Chicago, Illinois, was a 7-5 victor over Grayson Zylstra in the first set at No. 5 but the Yeomen vet was defeated 6-0, 6-4 in the second and third stanzas. 

The No. 6 battle between North and Hudson Mosher was a slugfest with North drawing first blood with a 6-4 triumph only to fall by the same score in the second. In an epic third set, it was Mosher who outlasted the Yeomen second-year 7-6 (7-5). 

The loss dropped the Yeomen back to 3-5 on the year, while DePauw moved to 3-4. 

The Yeomen will play their final match prior to spring break on Tuesday, March 14 as the Otterbein University Cardinals come to town for a 4 p.m. matinee match.