NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's tennis team was topped by regionally-ranked Carleton College, 9-0, in its second-to-last match of the regular season on Wednesday afternoon at Carlson Courts.

In its lone home on-campus match of the spring, St. Olaf (5-7, 4-4 MIAC) pushed Carleton (14-1, 6-0 MIAC) in all three doubles matches before the Knights claimed all six singles matches in straight sets. The top-two doubles matches were decided by two-point margins in tiebreakers, while the No. 3 doubles match finished 8-6.

Despite the loss, the Oles control their own destiny for a spot in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs, knowing a win at Macalester College on Saturday, April 26 will lock up a spot in the five-team field. Carleton was ranked No. 10 in the region and No. 41 nationally this week by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Facing a Carleton lineup that had lost just one doubles match in five MIAC matches this season, St. Olaf hung with the Knights in doubles but was unable to pull out any of the three matches. After trailing 3-0 and 6-2, first years Madden Vanderwerf and Daniel Meunier fought back to get within a game at 7-6 before Carleton won the next game to close it out.

Sophomores Marjan Veldic and Ryan Birnesser battled all the way back from a 7-2 deficit to force a tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles but were edged 7-5 in the breaker. Junior Bogdan Vizoli and first year Lou Smith had two match points with a 6-4 lead in their tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles before the Knights won the final four points.

Carleton won all six singles matches in straight sets, although three of the six matches included either a tiebreaker or a 7-5 set. Smith lost a first-set tiebreaker at No. 3 singles in a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 loss to Akshay Garapati, while Veldic was on the wrong side of a second-set tiebreaker in a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) defeat to Jasper Yang at No. 2 singles. Vizoli fell 7-5, 6-2 to Baiyun Jin atop the lineup.

The Oles' regular-season finale at Macalester will begin at 2:30 p.m. at Hayden Courts in St. Paul on Saturday, April 26.