CANTON, N.Y. – The Union College men's tennis team came up one match short for the second straight outing, falling by a 4-3 score to St. Lawrence University in Liberty League action on Saturday at the Newell Field House.
 
For the second match in a row, the doubles point proved to be the decider after the teams split the six singles flights. Union (5-10, 1-3 Liberty League) earned one win at the third flight, with senior Seth Prusko and first-year David Wang outlasting Sebastian Boada and Willem Naughton by a 7-6 (7-1) score, but came up short at the top two flights.
 
St. Lawrence (8-11, 2-4 Liberty League) quickly added to its advantage with wins at first and fifth singles, but sophomore Solen Bellemare kept Union alive with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Jake David at the fourth flight. Sophomore Shreyas Kode battled back from losing the first set at love to knock off Aidan Baracao in sixth-singles action, 0-6, 6-2, 6-1, while first-year Jesus Sosa also needed three sets to dispatch Broderick Pinto, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, in their second-singles contest.
 
Having battled back to even the score, the match eventually came down to third singles. Senior Ben Jacobs took the first set from John Hill-Edgar 6-4 before dropping the second 2-6, setting up a decisive third set. The senior fought off a pair of match points at 4-5 in the set to stay alive and eventually force a tiebreaker, but Hill-Edgar recorded four of the final five points with the breaker tied at three to secure the match win.
 
Union will be back on the home courts twice next week, beginning on Tuesday with a 4 p.m. matchup against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.