The Lake Forest College men's tennis team defeated Cornell College 5-4 and Knox College 8-1 at the Racquet Club of Lake Bluff on Saturday.
Sophomore Aiden Burke and junior Chase Garber started off strong with an 8-3 triumph at #2 doubles. However, the Foresters' #1 and #3 teams were defeated 8-4.
After Lake Forest senior Joe Bove came out on top of a 6-3, 6-4 decision at #3 singles and Cornell won at the stop two spots in the lineup, the Foresters were down 4-2 in the competition. The Lake Forest comeback began with a 6-0, 6-3 victory for sophomore Brant Christensen at #5 and continued with freshman Matthew Pawlowski's 6-2, 6-1 win at #6 tied the contest.
The deciding match was at #4, where Garber took the first set 7-5 but dropped the second in a tiebreaker. After three deuces in the last game, he took the final set 6-4 and clinched the team's victory.
The final score was more convincing against Knox, which started with a Forester sweep of the doubles competition. An 8-4 victory for Bove and freshman Carson Chen at #2 was the first to finish and was followed by Pawlowski and freshman Mawande Mayiga posting an 8-1 win at #3. Burke and Garber made the score 3-0 by coming out on top 8-5 at #1.
The first five singles marched that finished went to the home team, beginning with Bove's 6-2, 6-1 victory at #2. Mayiga provided the clinching point, taking both sets 6-1 at #5, and Pawlowski and Chen matched that score at #4 and #6, respectively. Christensen added a 6-4, 6-2 triumph at #3.
The Foresters improved to 7-8 overall and 2-0 in Midwest Conference play this season. Cornell fell to 8-6 overall and 0-1 in the league while Knox's overall record dropped to 1-9 with losses in each of the team's three conference contests.
Lake Forest will continue the weekend against Grinnell College tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. at the Racquet Club of Lake Bluff.
by Julie Lord and Mike Wajerski