OBERLIN, OH - In their first home match of the season, the Oberlin College Men's Tennis team lost 7-0 to the Walsh University Cavaliers, a Division II team.

The Cavaliers brought the heat early on in doubles play. The big serving of Ethan Milgan and the clean volleys from Philip Peter Carstensen proved to be too much for Oberlin's #1 team, second-year Shawn Lisann and third-year Sebastien Naginski. Ben Hoffman and Lukas Kohler, Walsh's #3 team, came to the net often and played ultra-aggressively to beat second-year James Foster and first-year Ben Tichauer, 6-2.

The closest doubles match of the day was between Oberlin's #2 duo, fourth-year Rohan Gold and first-year Zain Makada, against Joan Dasi and Luis Hernandez Ceballos. Gold and Makada returned well and kept a constant fighting spirit to break the Cavaliers at 4-3 after being down 40-15 in the game. They earned a set point on their serve at 5-3, 40-40, but couldn't close out the match. Walsh's #2 team stormed back and earned a hard-fought 7-5 win.

Gold also played the most closely contested singles match in the #1 spot against Carstensen. His strong counter-punching skills and endurance kept him ahead throughout a tight first set, which he pulled out 6-4. In the second set, Carstensen improved his level and became much more vocal and energetic. Despite Gold's best efforts, the Cavalier breezed through the last two sets to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Lisann struggled to get his footing against a high-quality opponent for a second week in a row. He wasn't able to get past Hernandez Ceballos' consistency and net play and lost 6-2, 6-0. 

Naginski got off to a rocky start against Dasi and was bagled in the first set, 6-0. However, he started being more patient and playing longer points, which paid off when he broke to go up 5-3 in the second set. However, he lost a crucial deuce point and wasn't able to recover, losing 6-0, 7-5. 

Makada played his first match in the #4 slot and was neck and neck with Kohler throughout the first set. Kohler broke at 5-5 and served out the set, 7-5. He quickly went up a double break 4-1 in the second set but Makada dug deep and won 2 games for 4-3. His effort wasn't enough in the end, though, and Kohler won 7-5, 6-4.

Tichauer and Foster had similar matches in the 5 and 6 slots. Tichauer went back and forth throughout the first set against Walsh's #5 Fedor Kuznetsov but lost 7-5. He wasn't able to recover and lost the second set 6-1. In the #6 match, Foster and Milgan both held serve until 4-4, when Foster went down 0-40 on his serve. He evened the score at 40-40, but a big return from Milgan put the Cavalier up 5-4. After serving out the first set, Milgan won the first three games of the second set on deuce points and closed out the match, 6-4, 6-0,

Although the team was unable to win a match, Head Coach Eric Ishida saw a few bright spots in the team's performance. "I definitely feel positive about the match," Head Coach Eric Ishida said. "I think we had some great moments in each match but at the end of the day, Walsh was able to weather the storm a little better than we did. I'm proud of our effort and am looking forward to Kalamazoo at 10 a.m. tomorrow."

The Crimson and Gold are back on their courts tomorrow morning when they take on the Kalamazoo Hornets at 10:00 a.m.

Fans can watch all the home matches live online. Home contests can be accessed on a TV through the official Oberlin College Sports Network app on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.