This past weekend the men’s tennis team was on the road.

The ’Cats paid a visit to University of Puget Sound to face the Loggers. They won a tight and tough-fought match with a score of 5-4 at the end of the day.

UPS jumped out to a lead in doubles play. At the end of doubles play, the Loggers lead 2-1.

The doubles play ended in all tiebreakers. Ben McNair, ’18, and Carter Pentz, ’19, won in tiebreaker fashion in the number one doubles position 9-8.

Trent Prussing, ’19, and Charlie Farrenkopf, ’17, fell in a tiebreaker 9-8 in the two position.

Jacob Mangan, ’19, and Liam Spearnak, ’18, lost in a tiebreaker as well, 9-8.

With the Loggers leading 2-1, the Wildcats had some work to do.

In singles play, McNair at the one position got the victory 6-2, 6-3. Prussing played three sets and won 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.

Pentz at third position won decisively 6-3, 6-0.

And lastly, Mangan lost the first set but fought back with two straight sets to earn the win with 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Mangan said, “The whole team has worked extremely hard in practice over the past week.

This team win is a great start to build on the rest of the season.”

“We will enjoy this win for a little bit, but this is only one match and we will be back to work tomorrow,” he said.

Assistant coach Brent Kingzett was in agreement with Mangan and said, “We are happy to start conference play with coming from behind but are by no means content.”

“We have many areas to improve and are eager to improve and there are plenty of tough matches ahead,” Coach Kingzett said.

When asked about how play went against Puget Sound, he responded, “We started off slower than we would have wanted, losing two of three very closely decided doubles matches.”

“The guys fought back in singles, winning four of the six, two of which went into third sets.”

On the second day of action in Forest Grove, Oregon against the Pacific University Boxers, the Wildcats fell in all three of doubles play.

McNair and Pentz lost 7-9, Prussing and Farrenkopf lost 3-8 in second doubles and in third doubles, Mangan and Spearnak fell 4-8.

Down 0-3, going into singles play, it was not looking optimistic for the Wildcats. The top flight for singles, first, second and third position lost pretty quickly.

The bottom flight of singles did not have much luck either.

The lone win came from freshman Jacob Mangan at six singles with a score of 7-6, 6-1. The men lost 8-1 to Pacific.

The ’Cats move to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in the Northwest Conference.

Next up, the men are on their home courts on Saturday against the Whitworth Pirates and on Sunday against the Whitman Missionaries.