OAKLAND CITY, Ind. - The Webster University men's tennis team closed out the 2021 regular season by dropping its fourth straight match here Sunday by falling 7-0 to Oakland City University at the OCU Outdoor Tennis Courts.

With the setback, Webster falls to 4-10-1 overall on the season, while Oakland City moves to 6-4 on the year. 

Sunday's match was played using NAIA rules as the three doubles matches counted as one point with a team needing to win two of three doubles matches to earn the point.

Webster played with only four players on Sunday and that gave the Oaks two wins in singles by default. 

In doubles action, Webster's No. 1 team of fifth-year senior Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and freshman Matthew Birchmeier (Swartz Creek, Mich./Flushing) battled throughout its match with OCU's No. 1 duo of Teodor Ziatar and Andre Baltazer, before OCU's duo would pull out a 6-4 win. Muren and Birchmeier fell to 7-8 on the season with the loss. 

The other doubles team for the Gorloks - freshman Noah Thomas (Wentzville, Mo./Holt) and sophomore Parker Schaefer (Barnhart, Mo./Windsor), lost 6-0 at the No. 2 spot. It was the first time this season that Thomas and Schaefer played doubles together. 

Following the conclusion of doubles play, the two teams turned their attention to singles play and in singles, the Gorloks won a total of 12 games in the four singles matches that were played. 

The most competitive match in singles came at the No. 4 spot as Schaefer fell 6-2, 6-2 to Jonathan Holsapple. 

Birchmeier would fall at the No. 2 spot after being forced to retire leading 4-0 in the second set against Andrea Baltazar. Baltazar won the first set, 4-0. 

Muren dropped his second straight match at the No. 1 singles spot as he fell 6-2, 6-0 to Ziatar to move his overall record to 8-7 on the season. 

Thomas would be shutout 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles by Kaleb Knepp. 

With the completion of the regular season, Webster will turn its focus to the postseason as they will compete in the 2021 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Tournament on Saturday, April 24 at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park.