RINDGE, N.H. (3/13/23) – The Franklin Pierce University men's tennis gave their opponent all they could handle, but had a rough end to their weekend falling 4-3 to the College of the Holy Cross on Sunday afternoon at the Monadnock Indoor Tennis Club.

Pierce men's tennis remains winless this spring, and drops to 4-4 overall with the loss. Holy Cross, with the win, improves to 3-4 overall on the season.

To open the event, the Crusaders cruised their way through doubles action with victories at all three positions. At the No. 2 position, seniors Alejandro Ortiz (Madrid, Spain) and Paul McLellan (Nairobi, Kenya) kept things close with Holy Cross' Connor Nelson and William Kelleher, but couldn't escape with the win out of the tiebreak by a 7-6 (7-4) decision.

However, the Ravens would rebound with a trio of victories in singles competition. Their first of the day would come from the No. 1 spot by way of a decisive two-set win by senior Preston Gordon (Essex Junction, Vt.), who bested Crusader Jeremy Clark by 6-1 and 6-3 scores. Not long after, senior Nkrumah Patrick (Tunapuna, Trinidad & Tobago) would bounce back from an opening set loss to claim the victory through three, defeating Connor Nelson 6-2 and 7-6 (8-6) in the final two sets. To keep things consistent, Alejandro Ortiz similarly won a three-set match at the No. 3 position with a 6-2 win in the second set, and a 6-4 score in the third.

Holy Cross, with the doubles point in hand, would match Pierce with three wins in singles to narrowly escape with the 4-3 win.

Men's Tennis packs up for a trip this Thursday, March 16^th to Dominican (N.Y.) to face the Chargers in a 1:00 p.m. end of the week matchup.