The Fresno State men’s tennis team hosted the University of Washington, ranked No. 25 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, on Monday at the Wathen Tennis Center.
The Bulldogs fell to the high-powered Huskies 4-1, but the match was much tighter than the final score shows.
Washington’s Hudson Barnhart and Max Manthou handled Felipe Fritz and Sai Kartik Nakireddi 8-3, while Marton Bots and Kyle McMorrow made quick work of Reid deLaubenfels and Sam McNeil 8-4 on Court 1.
The Huskies drew first blood and scored the first point of the match.
“I definitely thought we had a shot,” Fresno State coach Evan Austin said. “When we didn’t win the doubles point, I knew it would be really tough to get to four points from there. We were in there.”
Fresno State found itself in a hole quickly during the singles rounds. Nicholas Kamisar defeated Jeremy Quiroz swiftly 6-2, 6-1.
deLaubenfels faired no better on court No. 1 falling to McMorrow 6-3, 6-1.
Down in the overall score 3-0, the Bulldogs needed to win the final four matches to come away with a win.
Fresno State’s lone point came from the victory on court No. 4 where Fritz finished a tight match ending in a tiebreak in the second set 6-1, 7-6 (8-6).
Fritz is on a four-match win-streak in singles competition.
“He’s getting a lot of confidence going,” Austin said. “More than anything, it’s just a comfort level and his tennis speaks for itself. When he’s out there loose, there aren’t many guys who can dictate the game to him. It’s more him dictating the game to them.”
MacNeil was locked in a battle on court No. 5 with Viktor Farkas. Farkas proved to be too much after a second set surge winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The match was called with two courts still seeing action due to travel obligations.
“One thing about experienced teams that have been around before — they don’t let up and they don’t make it easy on you,” Austin said.
Next up on the schedule is 66th-ranked Purdue.
“This is the eighth or ninth nationally ranked team already, so it’s not something new to us,” Austin said. “We’re getting more comfortable in these situations.”
The match against Purdue marks the third event in a five-match home stint.
Said Austin: “We’ve played well at home, so I think it’s a big opportunity for us and I’m looking forward to it.”