NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Facing the nationally-ranked Mary Washington Eagles at the Eyre Courts on Saturday afternoon, the 23rd-ranked Christopher Newport men's tennis team suffered a narrow 4-3 loss. The 28th-ranked Eagles (11-4) edged out the Captains (8-5) despite one of the closest matches of the season. 

The home team jumped out to an early lead courtesy of the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and 3. First, at No. 2, Edvard Porsmyr Hansen and Gabe Smith paired up for a 7-5 win against Drew Campbell and Evan Fisher. Then, Rainer Christiansen and Alex Seretis earned a hard-fought 7-6 (7-4) win against Will Fromherz and Matt Scott. The duo earned the win in a tiebreaker to clinch the doubles point and a 1-0 lead for the Captains. 

In singles play, the Eagles quickly knotted the match with a win at No. 1 but CNU re-took the lead, 2-1, when Ryan Monroe finished off Fisher on the No. 3 line (6-4, 6-1). The remaining four matches were back-and-forth battles with Mary Washington needing to win three of the four to capture the win. 

CNU got a win from rookie Gabe Smith at No. 6 against Albert Vladimirskiy (7-6 (7-5), 6-4), but were unable to hold off the comeback from Mary Washington after that. Nesh Kumaresan and Ashton Legum each forced a third set against their opponents and Christiansen was locked in a match that could not have been closer at No. 5. Taking on Jack Riordan, Christiansen forced a tiebreak in both the first and second sets and Riordan squeaked by his CNU counterpart in the extra points by the narrowest of margins, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5). 

Christopher Newport dropped to 8-5 overall with the setback, which marked the eighth 4-3 score of the last ten matches.