The men’s tennis team fell to Drexel 4-3 on Friday afternoon at Legacy Tennis Center.
The Owls drop to 2-3 (1-0 Atlantic 10 Conference). The Dragons improved to 4-1 (0-0 Colonial Athletic Association).
“Right now we’re just a little bit banged up,” coach Steve Mauro said. “We have a lot of illnesses and injuries. We played hard, and the match really could have gone either way.”
The Owls won the doubles point. Senior Kacper Rams and freshman Santiago Canete won the first flight 8-4 against sophomore Badr Ouabdelmoumen and junior Skyler Davis. It was the Drexel duo’s first doubles loss of the season.
In the second flight, sophomore Hernan Vasconez and freshman Nicolas Paulus defeated freshman Xabier Saavedra and sophomore Dan Koehler 8-5. The third flight match, which pitted sophomore Kristian Marquart and freshman Sam Rundle against senior Jeganathan Srinivasan and sophomore Dan Hansen, was unfinished.
In the first singles flight, Rams fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Ouabdelmoumen. He is still being hampered by shoulder issues.
“He’s going to see the doctor on Monday,” Mauro said. “We still don’t know what it is.”
Belkssir won in the second flight, defeating Srinivasan 6-2, 7-6. Marquart fell to Davis 7-5, 6-1 in the third flight.
“Kristian’s groin was really bothering him,” Mauro said. “He really struggled today.”
In the fourth flight, Canete lost 6-4, 6-2 to Koehler. Paulus won 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 in the fifth flight to Saavedra. In the sixth flight, Vasconez fell 6-4, 6-4 to junior Alex Fioravante.
“Hernan has the flu,” Mauro said. “Santiago was also not feeling well. It’s unfortunate that those guys were hurt. Normally we’d have won this match.”
The Owls are next in action at Penn on Wednesday, February 20 at 3 p.m.
Evan Cross can be reached at evan.cross@temple.edu or on Twitter @EvanCross.
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