OBERLIN, OH- The Oberlin College men's tennis team split a doubleheader at home on Saturday. The Yeomen fell 9-0 against #1 Case Western, before claiming victory against Illinois Tech in 6-3 fashion.
 
In the first match of the day, the team was routed 9-0 by the #1 DIII team in the country, Case Western Reserve University. Although some of the doubles matches were not competitive,  Sebastien Naginski and Shawn Lisann, Oberlin's #1 doubles team, pushed Anmay Devaraj and Sahil Dayal to the limit. Although the Yeomen had their chances against the #22 doubles team in the country, they ultimately lost 8-6. The other doubles matches finished long before, with Oberlin's #2 team, fourth-year Rohan Gold and first-year Zain Makada losing to Vishwa Aduru and Diego Maza 8-1. In the third doubles slot, second-year James Foster and first-year Ben Tichauer lost 8-0 to Ansh Shah and Michael Sutanto.
 
Gold had a few chances in his #1 singles match against Matthew Plunkett and was up a break in the first set but ultimately lost, 6-4, 6-3. In his #2 match, Lisann was breadsticked in both of his sets, losing to George Kossefi, 6-1, 6-1. Naginski was outplayed in his #3 match against Santiago Salazar Garza, 6-1, 6-0. Makada had a tight first set in his #4 match against Rohan Bhat but couldn't quite close it out and lost 7-5, 6-2. Tichauer lost 6-2, 6-2 to Ben Martin in his #5 match and in his #6 match, Foster was double-bageled by Derek Shiffer, 6-0, 6-0.
 
After a four hour break, the Crimson and Gold were back at it to take on Illinois Institute of Technology.
 
The doubles matches were as close as they could possibly be. In their match, Naginski and Lisann nearly won but faltered in the tiebreak against Alann Torres and Avneet Singh, losing 8-7 (3). Gold and Makada were able to come out victorious after their tiebreak, beating Jordan Lauer and Davis Housman, 8-7 (4). Tichauer and Foster were leading 6-3 but couldn't close it out and also lost in a tiebreak to Pol Dueso Guell and Nabil Fawaz, 8-7 (4).
 
Down 2-1 after doubles play, the Yeomen knew they had to step up their play. Gold took charge and dispatched Housman, 6-3, 6-3. Lisaan fought through two back-and-forth sets and played well in clutch moments to defeat Torres, 7-6 (4), 6-4. Naginski was aggressive and played smart tennis from the start of his match against Fawaz, using his lefty forehand well to win 6-3, 6-2. Makada's clean ball striking was too much for Dueso Guell and he cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win. Tichauer started off playing a close match but quickly pulled away from Eduardo Lopez, winning 6-2, 6-1. Foster came back from a set down to even the match at one set a piece, but he couldn't make the momentum count and lost to Lauer, 7-5, 4-6, 10-6.
 
With the loss to Case Western and the win against Illinois Institute of Technology, the Yeomen move to 2-3 on the season. They play their next match at home against Otterbein University on Wednesday, February 28, at 4:30 p.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.