TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Webster University stepped out of St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's tennis play here Saturday as the Gorloks fell to two regional powers at the Joy Hulbert Tennis Center on the campus of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
The Gorloks, who had its 10 match win streak snapped with Saturday's two setbacks, opened the day by falling 8-1 to Transylvania, before suffering a 7-2 decision to Rose-Hulman, who is ranked 19th in the Central Region in the latest ITA Division III regional rankings.
With the two losses, Webster falls to 10-4 overall on the season. The 10 match win streak for the Gorloks was the longest since winning 13 straight matches during the 2013 season.
Against Transylvania (6-9 overall), Webster's lone win came at No. 6 singles as freshman Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) defeated Transy's Hunter Gregg in a third-set tiebreaker. In the match, Kohler lost the first set, 7-6 (8-4), before winning the second set, 6-1 and then battling in the tiebreaker before earning a 10-7 win to give WU it's only point of the match.
In addition to Kohler's match, junior Nicholas Andrade (Quito, Ecuador/Francis Howell) battled hard for two sets against Brandon Stofelth as Stofleth won 6-3, 6-4.
Transy also won by identical 6-1, 6-3 scores at No. 1 and No. 3 singles and posted a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 4 singles over Webster freshman Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City).
Meanwhile, in doubles action, the Gorloks won a total of six games as the Pioneers swept all three doubles matches.
At No. 1 doubles, junior Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and sophomore Austin Nation (Oklahoma City, Okla./Purcell) fell 8-0 to Transy's Arjun Gupta and Hugo Kouhkna.
Haugen and senior Charlie McGhee (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) lost 8-3 at No. 2 doubles to Nick and Noah McNamee, while Andrade and freshman Parker Schaefer (Barnhart, Mo./Windsor) also fell 8-3 at No. 3 doubles to Gregg and Stofleth.
Meanwhile, against Rose-Hulman, who improved to 5-9 with the win, Webster opened by picking up an impressive win at No. 1 doubles as Muren and Nation earned an 8-5 win over RHIT's tandem of Joshua Giambattista and Andre Adam. Muren and Nation improved their record to 4-5 on the season in doubles.
RHIT won the other two doubles matches, 8-1 and 8-0 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
In singles, Webster's lone win came once again at the No. 6 spot as Kohler earned a 6-1, 6-4 win over Sean Xia. It marked the second straight win for Kohler in singles.
Despite losing the other five singles, Webster was competitive in several of the matches as Muren battled hard with Adam at the No. 1 spot as Adam picked up a 6-2, 6-4 win, while McGhee fell 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 3 spot to Giambattista.
Haugen picked up two games against Jacob Pluta at No. 4 singles and Pluta won 6-2, 6-0 and Andrade took a game off of Arudrra Krishman at No. 5 singles, 6-1, 6-0.
The only match Webster failed to win a game came at No. 2 singles as Nation fell by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores to Austin Perry.
Webster will return home on Tuesday, April 9 to host Principia College in a 6 p.m. SLIAC match at the Webster Groves Tennis Center.
