Oberlin 5, Elmhurst 2
Wabash 7, Elmhurst 2

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. - The Elmhurst men's tennis team kicked off its 2016 campaign with a pair of losses to Oberlin and Wabash.

Oberlin 5, Elmhurst 2
Playing to decision because of time constraints, the Yeoman (4-1) jumped ahead with a doubles sweep and split the four completed singles matches to take a 5-2 victory. 

At No. 1 doubles, Elmhurst's Chris Harrison and Quinn Jennings fell to Ian Paik and Jeremy Lichtmacher 8-2, while Kyle Endicott and Justin Delawder dropped an 8-3 decision at No. 2. Oberlin completed the sweep when Billy Lennon and Michael Drougas defeated Alex Abbuhl and Chris Wallace 8-4 at No. 3. 

In singles, Abbuhl put Elmhurst on the board with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Manickam Manickam, but Drougas put Oberlin on the brink with a 7-6, 6-0 win over Harrison. After Jennings put Elmhurst's second point on the board, winning in come back fashion 2-6, 6-4, 10-8, Lichtmacher won the fifth point with a 6-2, 6-2 decision over Wallace. 

When the match was called, Oberlin led at No. 4 (Robert Gittings ahead of Endicott 6-2, 4-2) and No. 6 (Lennon in front of Delawder 4-0).

Wabash 7, Elmhurst 2
Elmhurst (0-2) pulled within one point on two occasions against the Little Giants (2-2), but Wabash used prowess at the bottom of the lineup to defeat the Bluejays 7-2. 

Elmhurst once again found themselves in a hole during doubles play. Endicott and Delawder were forced to retire from their No. 2 match, trailing 5-0 to Mazin Hakim and Kirill Ivashchenko. At the top spot, Mike Makio and Will Reifeis put Wabash up 2-0 with an 8-2 victory over Harrison and Jennings. Abbuhl and Wallace kept the Bluejays close, rounding out doubles play with an 8-5 victory at No. 3. 

The Little Giants' Makio opened up singles play with a 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Harrison at No. 1. Jennings finished his second come back win of the day, 3-6, 6-3 10-7 over Reifeis to pull Elmhurst within one at 3-2. Abbuhl looked to even the match as he came back from 4-1 down to take the first set 7-6, but Wabash's Jordan Greenwell bounced back to take the second set 6-3 and the third-set super tiebreaker 10-4. Nicholas Pollack clinched the match for Wabash at No. 5 with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Wallace. Endicott brought his second set to a tiebreak, but fell to Ivashchenko 6-1, 7-6 at No. 4, while Hakim finished off the match with 6-1, 6-2 win over Delawder at No. 6. 

The Bluejays look for their first victory when they travel to Albion College on Sunday, February 21 for a 1:00 p.m. start.