ORLANDO, Fla. – The Union College men's tennis team split a pair of matches on Monday at the USTA National Campus, dropping a close 6-3 match to Augustana College to start the day before coming back for an 8-1 win over Whitworth University in the second match of the day.
 
First-year Keita Fukushima led the way for Union (2-5) with a perfect 4-0 day on the courts, winning twice in both singles and doubles play. Classmate Solen Bellemare had three victories on the day as well, while senior Dimitris Binopoulos and first-year Daniel Saxe also had two wins apiece.
 
Union finished off the day well against Whitworth, taking two of the three doubles matches and sweeping all six singles matchups in the 8-1 win.
 
Bellemare and Fukushima continued their solid play at second doubles with an 8-4 win to earn the team's first point, and the Garnet Chargers took a lead into singles play after a hard-fought 8-7 (7-5) win at the third flight by Saxe and junior Seth Prusko.
 
Saxe completed his 2-0 afternoon with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Jess Weaver at fourth singles, followed soon after by junior Ben Jacobs with a 6-2, 6-1 win at the top flight over Nathan Tjelle. Senior Khai Ton clinched the win at the sixth flight with a pair of 6-2 sets over Matt Froslan. Binopoulos and Bellemare both earned wins with 6-2 and 7-6 (7-1) sets at second and fifth singles, respectively, while Fukushima won by retirement after splitting the first two sets with Henry Preacher, 3-6, 7-6 (7-0).
 
The first match of the day was extremely close between the Garnet Chargers and Vikings, with only a few points proving the different in Augustana's 6-3 win.
 
Augustana started the day by taking two of the three doubles matches to grab an early lead. Bellemare and Fukushima earned the team's lone win in doubles play, posting an 8-4 victory at the second flight over Gabriel Luna and Timothee Philip. At the top flight, Binopoulos and Jacobs came one break short against Arthur Hermange and David Larraga in an 8-6 loss.
 
Singles play was incredibly close between the two squads, with four matches going to supertiebreakers that ultimately tilted the score in favor of the Vikings. After Augustana earned wins at first singles and sixth singles, Fukushima kept the Garnet Chargers alive with a close 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory at the third flight.
 
The final three matches all came down to supertiebreakers, two of which went to Augustana to clinch the win. Bellemare and Saxe both came back to win a second set and force supertiebreakers at fifth and fourth singles, respectively, but came a few points short from a victory. Binopoulos did close the match with a supertiebreaker win for the Garnet Chargers, coming back to take down Larraga, 2-6, 7-6 (9-7), 1-0 (10-8), at second singles.
 
Union will close out Spring Break tomorrow with two more matches, taking on DePauw University at 9:30 a.m. and St. Olaf College at 2:30 p.m.