NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's tennis team dropped a 9-0 match to regionally-ranked Carleton College in its return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Wednesday afternoon at Carlson Courts.

In its first match of the season on its home courts, St. Olaf (4-11, 1-5 MIAC) pushed Carleton (14-2, 6-0 MIAC) in two doubles matches and three singles matches, but the Knights emerged victorious in all nine matches to move into a first-place tie with Gustavus Adolphus College in the conference standings. The Knights were ranked No. 10 in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region rankings.

Juniors Jerusalem Thao and Jakub Belik played the closest of the three doubles matches at No. 3 doubles, falling by an 8-6 margin. Senior Henry Smith and first year Bogdan Vizoli led 4-3 at No. 1 doubles before their opponents won the final five games for an 8-4 victory. The Knights added an 8-2 win at No. 2 doubles.

In singles, Vizoli and Belik both won the second sets of their matches at No. 1 and No. 3 singles, respectively, before going down in super tiebreakers. After falling behind 5-0 in the opening set, Vizoli won nine of the next 11 games against regionally-ranked Tam Rojanasoonthon, but Rojanasoonthon recovered from losing the second set to claim a 6-3, 1-6, 10-7 win. Vizoli's second-set victory was just the seventh set Rojanasoonthon has dropped in 13 singles matches this season.

Belik lost the first set of his match with Yuv Kataria at No. 3 singles before fighting back to win the second to send the match the distance, but Kataria got out to an early lead in the super tiebreaker and went on to grab a 6-2, 4-6, 10-3 victory. The Knights did not drop a set in the other four singles matches, although junior Max Loesch played a tight two-setter at No. 6 singles, falling by scores of 7-5, 6-4.

St. Olaf continues a four-home-match week by hosting Hamline University on Senior Day on Friday, April 14 at 4 p.m. at Carlson Courts.