North Dakota men’s tennis lost to Air Force, 5-2, in a non-conference match on Sunday afternoon, April 12. The Fighting Hawks forced three matches into third sets but were unable to complete the comeback against the Falcons.
The result moves North Dakota’s record to 13-9 overall while Air Force improves to 9-11. The match was played at USAF Academy, Colorado.
In doubles play, Air Force started strong with a win on the No. 3 court. However, Christos Alex and Darrshan Suresh Kumar won a close battle at the top spot with a score of 7-5. On court No. 2, Justin Ilic and Kotaro Matsumura secured a tiebreak victory at 7-6 (5), giving North Dakota an early lead of 1-0.
Air Force responded by winning singles matches from the No. 6 and No. 3 positions before Suresh Kumar tied up the team score for North Dakota with straight-set wins of 6-3, 6-3 in his singles match.
The remaining three singles matches all went to three sets but ultimately were claimed by Air Force. Matsumura fought back after losing his first set but dropped the deciding third set at No.4 singles. Leo Galliano also rallied after dropping his first set but could not hold off his opponent in the final set on court one. In the last match of the day from position five, Alex recovered from an opening-set loss for a second-set win before falling in the third set.
North Dakota men’s tennis will finish its conference regular season on April 18 against Illinois State on the road.
