SUTTER TENNIS CENTER — The Lawrence Technological University (LTU) men's tennis team dropped a hard-fought non-conference matchup to visiting Missouri Baptist University on Friday afternoon, falling by a final score of 4-0.

With the defeat, the Blue Devils' overall record moves to 3-8 on the season.

Missouri Baptist captured the opening momentum by taking the doubles point. The Spartans secured wins at the No. 3 and No. 1 spots, with the LTU duo of J. Escriba and Alessandro Gratto falling 3-6 at No. 3, followed by Takuya King and Carlos Patricio dropping their No. 1 doubles match by an identical 3-6 margin.

LTU's No. 2 doubles pairing of Cael Guthrie and Augustin Patte put up a fierce fight, pushing their opponents to the brink before narrowly falling in a tiebreaker, 6-7 (3).

Transitioning into singles play down 1-0, the Blue Devils found themselves in several tight battles before the Spartans managed to clinch the match.

Missouri Baptist secured the overall victory with straight-set wins at the lower and middle flights. LTU's Alessandro Gratto was defeated at No. 5 singles (0-6, 0-6), Tyler Brunsell fell at No. 6 (3-6, 1-6), and Takuya King dropped his No. 3 matchup (1-6, 3-6), giving the Spartans the necessary four points to end the dual.

Because the match was played to clinch, three singles contests were left unfinished while the Blue Devils were battling hard. Carlos Patricio was having a strong showing at No. 2 singles; he captured his first set 6-4 and was in a tight second set (2-3) when the match was called. Meanwhile, Augustin Patte (No. 1 singles) and Cael Guthrie (No. 4 singles) were both locked in competitive opening sets, trailing 4-6 and 5-7 respectively, when play was halted.