Sterling, Ill. - Playing in their second day of back-to-back matches, the Illinois Tech men's tennis team battled with Augustana College before falling to the host Vikings 5-4 Sunday afternoon in a non-conference match. The Scarlet Hawks fall to 1-2 on the young season, while the Vikings improve to 2-1.

With the Scarlet Hawks losing the opening doubles competition 2-1, it was left to their performance in the singles competition to overtake the Vikings. Unfortunately the Hawks were only able to split singles play with Augustana 3-3, including dropping the number two singles match in a third-set tie-breaker.

Doubles Play (Augustana 2 - Illinois Tech 1)
In three fairly competitive matches, Augustana claimed a 2-1 edge in the doubles competition. Alann Torres and Avneet Singh fell in the number one doubles competition 8-5, as did the number two doubles team of Davis Housman and Jordan Lauer. Nabil Fawaz and Pol Dueso Guell were able to salvage the number three doubles match 8-6.

Singles Play (Illinois Tech 3 - Augustana 3)
The Scarlet Hawks earned singles victories in the number three, five and six matches, while dropping the one, two and four matches. Fawaz came from behind to win his number three singles match 5-7, 6-3, and 1-0, taking the third set tie-breaker 11-9. Eduardo Lopez and Jordan Lauer each won in straight sets in their number five and six singles matches, respectively, with Lopez winning 7-5, 6-3 and Lauer winning 6-2, 6-3. Housman dropped the number one singles match 4-6, 3-6, while Dueso Guell fell in the number four singles match 3-6, 1-6. Despite taking the opening set in his number two singles match, Torres would eventually fall 6-4, 0-6 and 0-1, losing the third-set tie-breaker 9-11.

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks will be back on their home court this Wednesday, when they host Roosevelt University at 7:30 PM at the XS Tennis Center in a non-conference match.