CLAREMONT, CA. – The No. 14 Pomona-Pitzer Men's Tennis Team came close to taking down No. 1 University of Chicago on Tuesday evening, battling to a 5-4 loss that went on for over four and a half hours. The Sagehens managed to edged out the Maroons in the doubles round, but four tightly-contested three-set losses in singles proved to be the deciders for Chicago.

Octave Bellet Di Giacomoni and Joshua Gearou rallied to a close back-and-forth match in no. 1 doubles against Jeremy Yuan and Tyler Raclin. Tied at 7-7, the Sagehens duo prevailed in tiebreakers 10-3 to win the match. Charlie Stark and Avery Bicks also went to tiebreakers in no. 2 doubles against Erik Kerrigan and Ninan Kumar, working to a 10-4 victory in the end to win 8-7. Jansen Comadena and Nils Skattum fell in a tight 8-6 loss to Charlie Pei and Joshua Xu in no. 3 doubles.

Jed Kronenberg managed to win his no. 1 singles match against Erik Kerrigan by a close 6-3 and 6-4 to give the Sagehens a 3-1 lead, but Bellet fell in no. 3 to Pei with a pair of 6-1 sets. Sam Gearou fell in no. 4 singles to Alejandro Rodriguez in three sets (4-6, 6-1, 2-6) as the Maroons tied the match. Chicago took the lead when Joshua Gearou fell in a close three-set thriller to Yuan, (1-6, 6-4, 4-6). Quinn Hirsohm managed to tie the match after a comeback victory against Xu in no. 6 singles, falling 3-6 in the first set but coming back with a pair of close 7-5 sets. The match came down to a nail-biter between Jacob Schoenherr and Alex Guzhva in no. 5 singles. Schoeherr fell in the first set 4-6, but came back 7-6 (4). However, after coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the final set, Schoenherr fell 7-5 as the Maroons barely clinched the victory.

Up Next: The No. 14 Sagehens will host No. 2 Middlebury College on Thursday, March 28 at 4:00 p.m.