The Division II UCSD men’s tennis team suffered its third loss of the season to Division I Loyola Marymount on March 3 in a make-up match at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

The 4-3 loss proved to be a heartbreaker as UCSD lost its opportunity to win the dual match in singles after being down from doubles.

The Lions took two of three doubles matches to win the doubles point of the match. The lone UCSD doubles victory was at No. 2 doubles, in which senior Amir Nejad and junior Bryan Swatt defeated Matt Phillips and Michael Wojnarowicz, 9-7. At No. 3, LMU’s Nico Terrien and Ashton Politanoff defeated senior Nick Morton and sophomore Brent Molden, 8-6, extending their undefeated doubles streak to 6-0. The third-ranked (Division II) doubles pair of seniors Sameer Chopra and Jeff Wilson suffered an 8-5 loss to Linas Cicenas and Beau Berglund at No. 1 doubles.

Although they lost the doubles point, singles looked promising for the Tritons, and they took the first set in all six matches. Needing to win at least four of the matches to secure a victory, UCSD was unable to hold its lead and allowed the Lions to come back and win. Chopra, junior Emil Novak and sophomore Erik Oijala won their individual matches at No. 1, No. 4 and No. 6 singles, respectively. They each had an easy day, defeating their LMU counterparts in straight sets.

Swatt, Wilson and Molden had a rough day at singles, losing their matches after each taking the first set. Swatt, playing at No. 2, could not secure victory as his opponent, Terrien, fought off five match points in the second set to force a tiebreaker, winning it and the third set. At No. 3 and No. 5 singles, Wilson and Molden were unable to stave off comebacks by Wojnarowicz and Phillips, who both came back to win the second and third sets to ice the match for the Tritons.

On March 6 and March 7, the Tritons traveled north to San Luis Obispo, Calif., to play Sonoma State, University of Nevada and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. UCSD turned things around quickly, winning two matches against Sonoma State, 9-0, and University of Nevada, 5-2. Complete results were unavailable at press time.