MINNEAPOLIS (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's tennis team opened its 2014 season on Saturday at the Baseline Tennis Center with a victory over Hamline University, but fell in the nightcap to Bethel University.

CSS vs. Hamline
The Saints had their official season opener against Hamline in the afternoon and came out on top 7-2. CSS started off fast by sweeping the three doubles matches. The No. 1 team of Josh Stainer (Portsmouth, England/South Downs College) and James Mack (Portsmouth, England/Cams Hill School) won 8-5. The No. 2 team of Nick Lambrecht (Stacy, Minn./North Branch HS (Minn.-Duluth)) and Dylan Kelly (Minneapolis, Minn./Minneapolis South HS) won 8-4 and the No. 3 duo of Tyler Bates (St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Tech) and Cullen Combs (White Bear Lake, Minn./White Bear Lake HS) won 8-5.

In singles action, the Saints would fall at both No. 1 and No. 2 singles in third set super-breakers. Lambrecht would get a win at No. 3 by scores of 6-0, 6-3. Mike Fontana (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS (Gustavus Adolphus)) prevailed at the No. 4 spot 6-1, 6-3.

Alex Mihailov (Bucharest, Romania/Gheorghe Sincai National College) won 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 at No. 5 and Logan Engelstad (Thief River Falls, Minn./Lincoln HS) came out on top at No. 6 blanking his opponent 6-0, 6-0.

CSS vs. Bethel
The Saints would fall to Bethel 5-4 late Saturday night. CSS started off slow, dropping two of the three doubles matches.
The lone team to win was the No. 1 duo of Stainer and Mack in a close one 9-8 (7-1).

Engelstad evened the match early by winning at the No. 5 singles spot 6-1, 6-1. The Royals won at the No. 3 spot, but Mihailov at the No. 6 spot evened the match back up for the Saints at 3-3, rallying to win 3-6, 6-0, (10-3).

However, the Royals would win in straight sets at the No. 1 and No. 4 spots to seal the win. Lambrecht won at No. 2 by scores of 6-1, 6-4 to make the final score 5-4.

The Saints will be in Virginia, Minn. next Sunday for a pair of matches against Ripon College (Wis.) and Carleton College.