ROGERS, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's tennis team suffered its second-straight 5-4 loss in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play by dropping a nail-biter to Bethel University on Friday night at Rogers Tennis Center.

With the team score locked at 3-3, Bethel (3-2, 2-0 MIAC) won back-to-back super tiebreakers – saving match points in both matches – to claim the victory over St. Olaf (2-5, 0-3 MIAC). Junior Jerusalem Thao was victorious in both singles and doubles for the Oles in the loss.

The Royals started the match by picking up an 8-5 victory at No. 1 doubles and winning a tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles to get out to a 2-0 lead. Thao and classmate Max Loesch gave the Oles a point heading into singles with an 8-6 win at No. 3 doubles for their first win this season as a pairing.

In singles, Bethel got a straight-set victory at No. 5 singles to stretch its lead to 3-1 before first year Henry Kruse and Thao recorded back-to-back super-tiebreaker victories to even the match at 3-3. Kruse took his match at No. 4 singles by 6-3, 2-6, 10-6 score for his second-straight win, while Thao rallied from a set down to outlast his opponent by a 4-6, 6-1, 12-10 margin at No. 6 singles.

With the score tied, the Royals came back from a set down at both No. 1 singles and No. 3 singles to win super tiebreakers by scores of 11-9 and 13-11 to gain the five points needed to secure the victory. First year Bogdan Vizoli earned his team-leading fourth victory of the season with a 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 triumph at No. 2 singles after the match was decided.

In its first match at the newly-resurfaced Tostrud Center, St. Olaf hosts first-year program UW-Stevens Point on Saturday, March 4 at 12:30 p.m.