RIVER FOREST, Ill. – Lakeland College dominated play at the lower flights to earn its first men's tennis match victory of the season with a 5-4 defeat of Concordia University Chicago Saturday morning.

The Muskies won every match at Nos. 3-6 singles as well as a close match at No. 3 doubles to win its Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference opener for the season. Lakeland finished with a split of its two matches for the day, losing to Dominican (Ill.) University 7-2 in a second match in River Forest later in the day.

Six different players accounted for the victories for Lakeland in the match against Concordia (0-2 overall, 0-1 NACC). The wins included a victory at No. 3 doubles, where ShoSean Fujino (Fr.-Tokyo, Japan) and Taylor Krocker (Fr.-Portage, Wis.) had to play past eight before defeating Andrew Menke and Niko Vercelletto 9-7.

The Muskies also won in three sets twice, with Quentin Barthe (Fr.-Tabanac, France) defeating Alex Vieaux 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 at No. 3 singles and Koki Saito (Sr.-Tokyo, Japan) outlasting Menke at No. 6 singles 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Paul Elzinga (Sr.-Howards Grove, Wis.) also earned a win at No. 4 singles, defeating Patrick McIntosh 7-5, 6-4, while Matt Stolz (So.-Wauwatosa, Wis.) made his debut for the tennis team and handled Vercelletto 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5 singles.

Lakeland (1-6 overall, 1-1 NACC) picked up two wins against Dominican, including a second win for the day in singles for Stolz. The Muskie volleyball player who recently completed his season on one court improved to 2-0 on the tennis court with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Chandler Allen at No. 5 singles.

Lakeland also earned one win in doubles play, as Elzinga and Barthe teamed up at No. 2 doubles to defeat John Mysz and Mohit Shekhar 9-7.

The Muskies return to play next Saturday when they host Aurora (Ill.) University at 10 a.m. and Wisconsin Lutheran College at 2 p.m. Both matches will be at the Sports Core in Kohler.

LC 5 CUC 4 Results
Dominican 7 LC 2 Results