HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC- Travelled to the east coast for their annual appearance at the Spring Tennis Fest, the Oberlin College men's tennis team took on Grinnell in their spring break opener. In their match with the 38^th-ranked Pioneers, the Yeomen fell 8-1 on Monday afternoon.
 
First to finish was the No.3 doubles duo of James Foster and Ben Tichauer. The tandem won the first game but were unable to carry their momentum over, as the Pioneers won the next eight games, giving Oberlin the 8-1 loss. Rohan Gold and Zain Makada finished next in the No. 2 doubles, where they fell 8-3. The top doubles team of Shawn Lisann and Sebastien Naginski suffered the same fate in their 8-3 defeat.
 
Onto the singles competition, the nationally recognized Pioneers dominated the matches, taking out Makada first in the four-spot. The Yeomen rookie dropped his match 6-2, 6-3 before Tichauer fell 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 5 match.
 
Lisann earned Oberlin's sole point when he won the No. 2 singles when Grinnell retired after a 3-6, 7-5 score. Gold battled in the No. 1 singles match, nearly defeating his opponent in the first set but ultimately falling 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. Naginski's match lasted nearly two hours after his second-set win extended the game into a tiebreaker. Down 7-2, Gold had a late push to bring the score to 6-8 in the tiebreaker, but Grinnell pulled through in the final two points to clinch the match.
 
Rounding out the day's competition, Foster took on Charles Yung in the No. 6 match, where he fell 6-3 in the opening set. Not ready to give up, the second-year stormed back into the competition with a 7-5 win in the second set to force a tiebreaker. Foster rallied from being down 5-0 to pull the score to 3-8, but the Obie was unable to fully climb back into the match as Grinnell took the final point.
 
Oberlin hits the court again for an early start tomorrow, Tuesday, March 26 when they take on another nationally-ranked opponent in Wisconsin-Whitewater. The #22 team in the nation and the Oberlin Yeomen begin their match at 11 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.