ST. PAUL – The Northwestern College men's tennis team officially opened up its 2013 season on Saturday, playing close to home in the Leonard Center at Macalester College. Unfortunately for the Eagles, their debut didn't fare as well as hoped as NWC fell 9-0 to the Scots.

Match Results

Despite the sweep, Northwestern's David Knight (Fort Dodge, Iowa/Fort Dodge) had two near-victories as both his singles and doubles matches went into tiebreakers. In Knight's singles match against Brian Utz, the NWC senior lost his first set 7-5 before taking the second set in 6-4 to force a tiebreaker. Utz won the tiebreaker 10-4 to take the match. Knight then teamed up with Keagan Blancke (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) in doubles action, where the pair lost to Utz and Max Edwards 9-8 (7-4).

Blancke faced Edwards in his No. 2 singles match, taking a total of three games from the Scots opponent in a 6-1, 6-2 final. Philip Gudim (Becker, Minn./Home School) was the only other Northwestern player to win games in both sets in his 6-1, 6-3 loss to Kai Peterson at No. 5 singles.

In addition to Knight and Blancke's doubles match, NWC also had decent performances in its Nos. 2 and 3 doubles matches. Jimmy Ekman (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) and Agassi Mila (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) lost their No. 2 match 8-5 before Gudim and Levi Busse (Amery, Wis./Amery) won four games in the No. 3 match.

Now 0-1 to start the season, Northwestern will be back in action next Saturday when they play two matches in Winona, Minn. The Eagles will face host- Saint Mary's University at 11 a.m. on Feb. 23 before squaring off against Loras College at 4 p.m.