The Elizabethtown College men’s tennis team fell to the United States Merchant Marine Academy on Friday, April 24, but defeated Harford Community College, 5-4 on April 25.

The Blue Jays had a 2-1 lead against Merchant Marine, but lost 4-5 in the last match against a Landmark Conference opponent. The Mariners were strong competition in singles competition with four wins out of 6 matches. Etown won two of the three doubles matches.

Etown fell in No. 1 doubles, but the sophomore duo of Ryan Caris and Nathan Dowling defeated Jeremy Guettlein and Matthew Schwartz, 8-4. First-year Michael Yost and junior Evan Hinkley earned the Blue Jays a win at No. 3 doubles, with an 8-5 score to beat Josh Levitas and Alec De Ryckere.

Etown had the lead until the No. 1 and No. 2 singles competition, which USMMA took to take the lead away from the Blue Jays. Senior Mike Cannon and sophomore Alex Machalick were the No. 1 and No. 2 singles spots for the Blue Jays, respectively.

“Our biggest challenge is going out there every day and playing our best tennis,” senior Ricky Meyers said. “It is easy to go out there and give it your all when you are winning every match, but we faced some really good teams in the beginning of the season and it put us in a bit of a hole. I’m proud of everyone on the team for the amount of effort they put in every day.”

The team finished the season with a 4-12 overall record before competing with Harford College in an exhibition match. The Blue Jays won three out of the six singles matches at No. 4, 5 and 6. Cannon and Machalik won at No. 1 doubles and Dowling and Caris won at No. 2 doubles. The individual and team win-loss records for the Blue Jays were not affected because Harford is a two-year college, but the match did count for Harford.