Kalamazoo, Michigan – The Oberlin College men's tennis team fell 6–1 to Kalamazoo College on the road on Saturday evening.
 
The Yeomen found themselves down a break in all three doubles matches early and couldn't form complete comebacks in any of them. Third-year Shawn Lisann and first-year Brady Huggett had come back from a 5–2 deficit in their last match but weren't able to replicate the effort today in a 6–3 loss against Kalamazoo's #1 team, Cameron Crosby and Alex Fleming.In the #2 match, first-years Enrique Margain and Max Brose faced a similar predicament as Lisann and Huggett but similarly couldn't crawl their way back, falling 6–2 to Adnan Alousi and Derek Blackwell. Oberlin's #3 duo, second-year Zain Makada and first-year Oliver Knijnenburg, came the closest to winning their match by far.
 
After the Yeomen and Hornets traded breaks in a back-and-forth set, both Makada and Knijnenburg had the opportunity to serve out the set at 5–4 and 6–5, respectively. Kalamazoo's Julian Bilbao and Will Seymour dug their heels in to break back both times and eventually save three match points in the tiebreak before closing out the set 7–6 (9).
 
Lisann scored Oberlin's only point of the day with his 7–5, 7–5 win over Alousi in the #1 slot. Lisann's tenacious net play and persistent aggressiveness were key in breaking Alousi's serve at 6–5 in both sets.
 
Margain was outplayed in the first set by Kalamazoo's #2 Fleming before finding his range in the second. The Yeoman's refusal to back down led to a much tighter second set that Fleming was able to eek out for a 6–2, 6–4 win. 
 
Makada's match followed the opposite script to Margain's as Oberlin's #3 was able to raise the tension in the first set when he grabbed two games in a row after falling behind 5–2. However, Makada was unable to win another game as Crosby triumphed 6–4, 6–0. 
 
Similarly to Makada, Brose staged a valiant effort at a comeback after falling behind quickly in the first se of the #4 matcht, 3–0. The Yeoman was able to bring the set within one game at 5–4 but could only grab two more games in the rest of the match, losing 6–4, 6–2 to Blackwell.
 
Oberlin's #5 Huggett was unable to replicate his his match-clinching performance last weekend, as he was outplayed by Kalamazoo's Seymour, 6–3, 6–1.
 
Ben Tichauer had the most competitive loss of the day in his #6 match against Sebastian Courtright. Despite being up a break in the second set, Tichauer was unable to close it out in a 6–4, 7–6(1) loss. 
 
With the loss, Oberlin drops to 1–5 on the season. The team will be back on court next Saturday when it hosts John Carroll University at 2:00 p.m.
 
Fans can keep up with their favorite teams on Instagram, Facebook, X, or TikTok, and watch all the home matches live online. The Crimson and Gold's home broadcasts can be accessed on TV through the official Oberlin College Sports Network app on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.