KOHLER, Wis. – The Lakeland University men's tennis team saw its season come to an end in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament first round with a narrow 5-3 loss to Wisconsin Lutheran College Monday afternoon at Sports Core.

The fifth-seeded Warriors avenged a loss to the Muskies in the regular season and advanced to the tourney semifinals to face top seed Illinois Institute of Technology. Fourth-seeded Lakeland finished its season with a 3-5 record.

Wisconsin Lutheran (4-7 overall) won two matches in doubles competition and then picked up victories at the middle and lower flights in singles play to win the race to five victories in the dual.

The Muskies were strong at the top of the lineup with Nick Larson (Fr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) and Jacob Larson (Jr.-Wauwatosa, Wis.) both double winners. Both dominated their singles matches, with Nick Larson defeating Matt Bass 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles and Jacob Larson also not losing a game in a 6-0, 6-0 win over Ryan Crick at No. 2 singles. Larson and Larson also were victorious at No. 1 doubles, defeating Bass and Quinn Wedel 8-3.

The Warriors countered with victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, and also wins at No. 3, 5 and 6 singles. The swing match came at No. 4 singles, where Evan Vorpahl (Fr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) won the first set over Wedel 6-1 but fell 6-2 in the second set. Wedel then won the third set 6-3 for what proved to be the deciding match.

Sterling Reilly (Fr.-Medford, Wis.) also was involved in a three-set match that went unfinished after Wedel clinched the win at No. 4 singles. Reilly and Bryce Halvorsen split the first two sets and Halvorsen held a slim lead in the third before the match ended with Halvorsen ahead 3-6, 6-4, 6-5.

WLC also won a competitive match at No. 6 singles where Josh Hennen defeated Alessandro Bianchi (So.-Venice, Italy) 6-3, 6-3. Hennen and Stu Woller also defeated Lakeland's Eric Bredlow (So.-Whitewater, Wis.) and Aaron Smith (Jr.-Lake Geneva, Wis.) 8-3 at No. 3 doubles.