EAU CLAIRE, Minn. – The Northwestern College men's tennis team snuck in a pair of matches on Saturday amidst the Easter weekend. The Eagles swept the University of Dubuque 9-0 before falling to host-school University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire 8-1.

NWC-Dubuque Match Results
NWC-Wis.-Eau Claire Results

All three of Northwestern's doubles teams started the day off with wins against Dubuque. The No. 1 pair of David Knight (Fort Dodge, Iowa/Fort Dodge) and Keagan Blancke (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) defeated Demetrius Johnson and Nikolay Gospodinov 8-5 while Agassi Mila (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) and Jimmy Ekman (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) rang up an 8-6 victory over Dishon Deering and Trevor Calahan at No. 2 doubles. NWC's Philip Gudim (Becker, Minn./Home School) and Levi Busse (Amery, Wis./Amery) wrapped up the first part of the afternoon with an 8-3 win against Michael Braden and Sean O'Meara at the No. 3 spot.

Knight set the tone to begin singles play, but the junior needed a just a few extra minutes to fend off Johnson 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) at the No. 1 position. Blancke and Mila followed at Nos. 2 and 3 with nearly matching 6-4, 6-3 and 6-3, 6-3 sets. Gudim and Busse both posted 6-0 set victories in their respective No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches.

Things didn't go as well against Eau Claire, who entered the day 11-5 on the year. The Eagles' No. 1 doubles team of Knight and Blancke were the only Northwestern winners on the day as the combo beat out the Blugolds' Ryan Vande Linde and Joe Meier 9-8. Things went downhill from there for the Purple and Gold as Ekman – playing at No. 5 singles – would be the only Eagles player to win four games in a set throughout the 12 sets that were played in six singles matches.

Northwestern will resume Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) play next week with a 5-9 overall record. The Eagles will hit the road to face Bethany Lutheran College on Tuesday before returning home to host the University of Minnesota Morris on Thursday.