GREENCASTLE, IN- In their first conference match of the season, the Oberlin College men's tennis team lost a nailbiter to the DePauw Tigers, 5-4.
 
First-year Zain Makada, competing in his first North Coast Athletic Conference match, partnered with fourth-year Rohan Gold to grab the first point for the Yeomen, taking down DePauw's #2 team, Ryan McCook and Wils Warren, 8-3. First-year Ben Tichauer and second-year James Foster were overwhelmed in their #3 match, losing 8-4 to Chase Hutchinson and Hudson Mosher. Oberlin's #1 doubles team, third-year Sebastien Naginski and second-year Shawn Lisann, came within two points of the win but fell to DePauw's Finley Buelte and Teagan Crow, 8-7(5).
 
Gold continued his winning ways in his #1 singles match, avenging his loss from last year to Buelte in a 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win. He hit a passing shot winner to stay alive at 4-5, 40-40 in the first set and regained his momentum after the second set to pull out the three-set victory. 
 
Lisann breezed through his #2 singles match, taking down Samuele Pia, 6-3, 6-2. McCook flipped the script from his doubles match against Makada, taking down the first-year 6-2, 6-0, in the #3 match. 
 
Naginski used his superior fitness and lefty forehand to break down DePauw's #4 Jake Louiselle in a close two-set match. The third-year came back from being down 4-2 in the second set to win, 6-4, 6-4. 
 
After losing the first set 6-1 in about 25 minutes, Tichauer evened up the #5 match at one set apiece, 1-6, 6-1. After a back and forth third set, Scott Anderson clinched the match for DePauw when he broke Tichauer to win 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. Foster lost quickly to Grayson Zylstra in the #6 slot, 6-1, 6-1. 
 
Although the Yeomen were a few points away from taking down the Tigers, they have little time to dwell on the loss as they continue conference play against Wabash College tomorrow morning in Crawfordsville, IN. Oberlin falls to 5-7 on the season and 0-1 in conference play.
 
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.