NORTH CHILI, NY – The University of Rochester men's tennis team was edged out in its first dual match of the year, falling 5-4 to host Roberts Wesleyan College on Thursday evening at the RWC Tennis Courts.
 
The Yellowjackets (0-1) fell behind 2-1 after doubles play, eventually tied it 3-3, but lost two of the final three singles contest to succumb to the Division II Redhawks (1-0).
 
To open play, UR's #2 doubles team of Masaru Fujimaki and Peter Huang were 8-3 winners over Dutsin Eshleman and Mathew Cruz.  Roberts Wesleyan responded with an 8-6 win at #3 doubles from Jose Carrillo and Guido Janssen.  The pair topped the Yellowjackets' Mattias Hartveit and Sahaj Somani.  To finish off doubles, RWC's Hugo Ball-Greene and Dennis Barlotta were 8-5 winners over Damani Eubanks and Andrew Nunno of Rochester.
 
Singles play started with Janssen defeating Huang at #4 6-2, 6-1 to pull the Redhawks up 5-4.  Nunno won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0, at #2 over Barlotta with Somani winning 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 at #6 over Carrillo to knot the score at 3-3 in the overall match.
 
The final three singles matches were all tight affairs, as Ball-Greene won in three sets over Fujimaki 4-6, 6-2, 10-3 in the top spot.  Harmeet Luthra then earned the clincher, winning 7-5, 7-5 at #5 over UR's Yifan Shen before Jun Yuminaga closed the match with a 6-4, 7-6 win at #3 over Andrew Freeman.
 
Rochester is back in action this weekend at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, being played Saturday through Monday at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.