GRANVILLE, Ohio — The Earlham College men's tennis team lost a non-conference match on Wednesday, as the Quakers fell 9-0 to nationally-ranked Denison University.

Denison is ranked No. 30 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's pre-season poll. With the loss, Earlham is 3-1, while Denison improves to 2-0.  

"I am really proud of the way we played," Earlham Head Coach Adam Van Zee said. "We fought hard in every match and competed against a nationally recognized program."

"Although the score shows 9-0, it was a much closer match than that," Van Zee added. "We were just not able to win some of the key points of the match and that made the difference. We will learn a lot from this match and hopefully gain from the experience for the future."

Anton Bartashevich (Moscow, Russia, International) and Brad Maisey (Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, Tauranga Boys) both fought hard in their single matches; each playing three sets against their opponent. Bartashevish faced Denison's Matt McErlean, but fell short 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (13-11) at No. 2. Maisey, who faced Denison's Casey Cempre at No. 4, lost in a three-set match 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-4).

In doubles, the Quaker's Hank Levin (Dallas, TX, Highland Park) and Bartashevish lost to Cempre and McErlean 8-5 at No. 1. Maisey and Andrey Gavrilov (Yaroslavl, Russia, Universal) fell short to Tim Martin and Shankar Rajupet 9-7 at No. 2.

The Quakers will square off against Otterbein University on Friday, Feb. 24. The non-conference match is in Dayton, Ohio at 5 p.m.

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