Grand Rapids, Mich. - After having a pair of matches canceled last Saturday due to weather-related travel conditions, the Illinois Tech men's tennis team was looking forward to getting back on the cart, not having played since February 7th. In their Saturday morning road match at Calvin University, the Scarlet Hawks had some tough battle in doubles and singles play, but ultimately fell to the Knights 6-1. The Hawks fell to 2-4 on the season. The Knights improved to 2-3.

Sophomore Pol Duese Guell provided the best performance for the Scarlet Hawks on the day, as he helped the Scarlet Hawks avoid the sweep by winning his number five singles match 6-4, 6-3. For Dueso Guell, that marked his third consecutive singles match victory, improving his singles record on the season to 5-1, with his lone loss coming against Sam Goidel of top-ranked University of Chicago on January 26th.  Dueso Guell and doubles partner Eduardo Lopez also won their number three doubles match 7-6 (7-4), the Hawks' lone win of their three matches against Calvin for the lone "winner take all" doubles point that went the Knights' way, 2-1.

Doubles Play - Calvin 2 - Illinois Tech 1 (Calvin wins the lone doubles team point) 
Calvin jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in doubles play with their number one doubles team defeating Pedro Caroa-Accino Roca and Alexander Feher 6-1. The Scarlet Hawks number two team of Hozumi Tada and Avneet Singh battled before eventually falling 6-3, giving the Knights the two doubles match victories to secure the lone doubles point. Dueso Guell and Lopez salvaged the lone doubles match victory for the Hawks in the number three match, 7-6 (7-4).

Singles Play - Calvin 5 - Illinois Tech 1 (Calvin secures the match victory with five singles points)
The Knights would secure the match victory before the Scarlet Hawks could get on the board in singles play. Singh lost his number four singles match 1-6, 1-6 to open singles play. Roca, in the number one singles match, would fall 2-6, 0-6 to put Calvin within two singles match victories of securing the overall match victory. Tada of the Hawks would battle in his number three singles match before eventually falling 6-7 (3-7). Next in the number two singles match, Feher would win his first set 6-4, before Calvin's Caleb Bartels regrouped and won set two 6-0. Bartels would win the third set tie-breaker 1-0 (10-8), giving the Knights the four singles match points needed to earn the overall match victory. Dueso Guell scratched out the Scarlet Hawks lone singles victory with his 6-4, 6-3 win in the number five singles match. Calvin's Emmanuel Henao closed out singles play with his 6-2, 6-4 victory over Lopez in the number six match.

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks are in the midst of a stretch of three away matches, with the second stop coming next Saturday, March 1st in Kenosha, Wisconsin, when the Hawks take on Carthage College at 6:00pm.