Men's tennis defeated by crosstown rival Carleton

Michael Abdella
April 28, 2011

NORTHFIELD, Minn.- The St. Olaf men's tennis team was defeated by crosstown rival Carleton College 7-2 Thursday afternoon at Carlson Tennis Courts in a match that was closer than the score indicates.

In a battle of teams that have already clinched their spots in the MIAC playoffs, the number two seed in the conference was on the line. Carleton gained the upper hand in the match by winning two of the three doubles matches. Knute Gundersen and Will Mitchell gave the Oles hope by winning their first doubles match 8-5. John Wight and Andy Catania lost their match at second doubles to Alex Chin and Austin Jiang, who moved to 7-0 on the year at that spot. Charlie Reinertsen and Ryan Abdella got off to a quick 4-1 start before falling 8-4.

Carleton's depth was on display in singles play as they won five of the six matches despite being short Peter Dunn, their top singles player. After swapping spots with Gundersen, Wight won his first match at first singles easily in straight sets. Gundersen was defeated by Jiang, who is now 7-0 at second singles, in two close sets. Reinertsen won the first set of his third singles match but ended up losing in a super-tiebreaker. John Foss and Catania both lost their singles matches in straight sets although they both played better in their second sets. Mitchell came back from losing the first set to force a super-tiebreaker only to fall 10-5.

St. Olaf closes out its regular season schedule on Saturday with a match against Bethel at the 98th Street Lifetime Fitness. Play starts at noon.

Contact media relations specialist Mike Ludwig at (507) 786-3834 or ludwigm@stolaf.edu.