SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – The Gonzaga men's tennis team dropped its third match of the season Sunday afternoon at Mustang Tennis Complex in San Luis Obispo after falling in a close one to Cal Poly 4-3.

"Tough battle on the road," Head Coach Jonas Piibor said. "Credit to Cal Poly; they are a solid team, especially at their home courts."

Cal Poly (6-7) controlled doubles as Antoine Noel and Andrew Whitehouse defeated Matthew Perkins and Matthew Hollingworth 6-4 at No. 2 while Alex Slater and Gary Vardanyan edged Oliver Andersson and Pablo Gomez Galvan 6-3 on No. 3 to clinch the doubles point. Court No. 1 went unfinished tying 4-4.

In singles play, Gonzaga and Cal Poly split the six matches. Sasha Trkulja got the Zags off to a good start winning at No. 2, 6-4, 6-2. The Mustangs then took two matches in a row to take a 3-1 match lead as Fernando Fonseca defeated Hunter Egger 6-4, 6-4 on Court 6 and Alex Slater edged Matthew Hollingworth 6-2, 6-4 at No. 1. Gomez Galvan brought the Zags closer to a victory, winning his match on Court 5, 6-4, 6-3. With a match score of 3-2, Oliver Andersson forced a tiebreaker at No.3 against Antoine Noel. Andersson came out on top in the third set 7-6 to even the match score at 3-3. In the final match, Joe Leather fought back against the Zags Leon Roider to force a tiebreak and eventually win 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 to seal the match for Cal Poly.  

"I know we will get back to work and continue to work on the things we need to get better at in order to come out victorious in these close matches," Piibor said. "The team is hungry to get better, and I know we will as soon as the season goes on."

Gonzaga returns to action next weekend at home with a match Friday, March 19th against Eastern Washington and a doubleheader vs. University of Nebraska at Omaha on Saturday, March 20th. Check GoZags.com for up-to-date match time information.