Chicago, Ill. - Before departing for their annual spring break trip, the Illinois Tech men's tennis team had a non-conference match against Augustana to tend to Saturday night at the XS Tennis Center. The Scarlet Hawks fell behind in the match quickly 1-0 after doubles play, and were never able to recover as the Vikings defeated the Hawks 5-2. The Scarlet Hawks dropped to 2-6 on the season. The Vikings improved to 7-3.

Pol Dueso Guell continued his strong play in singles competition, winning his sixth singles match of the season out of 8 matches played. It was also Dueso Guell's first win in the number three singles position after playing in the number five position the majority of the season so far. Hozumi Tada also won his singles match, his second singles victory on the year.

Doubles Play (Augustana 3 - Illinois Tech 0 - Augustana earns the lone doubles competition point)
The Scarlet Hawks fell behind in doubles play 1-0 when Dueso Guell and partner Eduardo Lopez lost in their number three doubles match 6-1. Tada and Pedro Caroa Accino Roca fell 6-3 in their number two doubles match, while Alexander Feher and Avneet Singh battled but eventually succumbed to the Vikings in the number one double match, 6-4.

Singles Play (Augustana 4 - Illinois Tech 2 - Augustana wins singles play and the match)
Singles play started with Roca dropping his number one singles match to Augustana's Arthur Hermange, 6-3, 6-3. Next, in a close match, Singh ultimately fell to the Vikings' Aingeru Garcia 6-4, 6-4 in the number six singles match. This gave the Vikings a 3-0 match lead, and they ended the suspense in the number two singles match when the Scarlet Hawks' Feher dropped his first set in a tie-breaker 7-6 (7-4), and then lost set two 6-4 to Saman Rezaeyan to give Augustana the four points needed for the match victory. Despite the match loss, Dueso Guell got the Scarlet Hawks on the board in the number three singles match with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over David Larraga. Augustana's Timothee Philip downed Lopez in the number five singles match in a third set tie-breaker, winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Tada won the final singles match on the evening, defeating Santiago Diaz in a third set tie-breaker, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks depart for Hilton Head Island, South Carolina on Sunday morning, as they prepare for a week of spring break matches, starting with their match against The College of Wooster at 8:30am CT on Monday morning.