Oberlin, Ohio – In their first match against a Division II opponent this season, the Oberlin College men's tennis team fell 5–2 to the Ashland Eagles.
 
Oberlin's No. 1 duo, third-year Shawn Lisann and first-year Brady Huggett, had a lengthy match against the Eagles' Tomas Paskaukas and Batsomi Marobela. After saving match point when trailing 4–5, 40–40, the Yeomen earned a gutsy 7–6 (8) win. First-years Max Brose and Enrique Margain played their first match as the No. 2 team and had a back-and-forth battle with Ashland's Ryohei Miyake and Reid Opel. The teams traded breaks early in the first set and looked poised to also head to a tiebreak before the Eagles played a few clutch points to grab a 6–4 win.
 
Second-year Zain Makada and first-year Oliver Knijnenburg's struggles continued as they were broken twice en route to a 6–2 loss to Ashland's No. 3 pair, Bernardo Duarte and Gabriel Seminario.
 
Despite the doubles loss, Makada came out firing in singles play. Taking on Ashland's No. 3 Doug Cree, Makada won crucial deuce points and fought through contentious moments to grab a point for the Yeomen, 7–5, 6–4. 
 
Lisann nabbed the Yeomen's other point with a gritty comeback win over Marobela, Ashland's top player. Having just gutted out the doubles win, Lisann came into singles a little flatfooted and Marobela took full advantage, breaking Lisann early and holding serve the rest of the way to win the first set, 6–4. Lisann, inspired by his three-set victory in his most recent match, went on a tear, winning the second set 6–2. Marobela upped his level in the third set as the two players traded breaks through the first four games of the match. Lisann held strong and closed out the third set for a 4–6, 6–2, 6–4 win. His doubles and singles wins today gave Lisann the 49th and 50th wins of his collegiate career.
 
Margain had the longest match of the day at No. 2 singles that culminated in a third-set tiebreak. After going up 4–1 in the first against Miyake, Margain stumbled before closing out the set 6–4. Miyake came out hot to start the second, going up 4–1 before a lengthy scoring dispute between the two players. After it was resolved, Miyake served out the set, 6–2, but fell behind quickly in the third. Margain found himself up 5–2 and had a match point at 40–40, but couldn't convert. As Miyake battled back, Margain dropped more match points and was suddenly trailing 6–5. Somehow, the Yeoman forced a tiebreak and earned two more match points at 6-5 and 7–6. In the end, Miyake won the last three points to win 4–6, 6–2, 7–6 (7).
 
Brose dropped two close sets to Duarte in a 6–3, 7–5 loss in the No. 4 singles match. First-years Oliver Faranda and Rowan Ing had competitive first sets before dropping their second sets quickly. Kaj Salzano dispatched Faranda 6–3, 6–1 in the No. 5 match while Ing lost 6–4, 6–1 to Ashland's No. 6 Seminario.
 
Oberlin is back in action on Sunday, March 2 when the team takes on Ohio Northern.
 
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