ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – First years Lou Smith and Madden Vanderwerf outlasted their opponents in super tiebreakers for the St. Olaf College men's tennis team in a 7-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) loss to Bethel University on Saturday afternoon at Ona Orth Athletic Complex.

Smith and Vanderwerf won their super tiebreakers by the slimmest of margins at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively, for St. Olaf (5-6, 4-3 MIAC), but Bethel (12-5, 5-1 MIAC) used a doubles sweep and four straight-set singles wins to top the Oles. 

Smith won the first set of his match at No. 3 singles by a 6-4 margin before Bethel's Zach Chaffey took the second by an identical margin. In the super tiebreaker, Smith held leads of 8-5 and 9-7 before Chaffey leveled the breaker at 9-9, but Smith won the final two points to move above .500 in MIAC play at 4-3 with a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (11-9) victory.

After Vanderwerf took the opening set at No. 4 singles, Watson Sheared did not drop a game in the second set to extend the match to a decider. Vanderwerf got out to leads of 3-0, 6-3, and 9-6 before eventually closing out a 6-3, 0-6, 1-0 (10-8) win. The victory moved Vanderwerf to a team-best 14-2 overall and 6-1 in MIAC play in singles this season.

Bethel took control of the match by sweeping the three doubles matches, including rallying from a 6-1 deficit to force a tiebreaker that the Royals won, 10-8, at the top spot. All four of the Royals' singles victories came in straight sets.

St. Olaf will host Carleton College on Wednesday, April 16 in its lone match of the regular season at Carlson Courts, starting at 4:30 p.m.