MOLINE, Ill. – For the second straight outing the Augustana men's tennis team dropped a tight 5-4 decision. The Vikings fell to Grinnell by a score of 5-4 on Saturday, April 2 at the Quad City Tennis Club in Moline, Illinois. Two weeks ago, on March 19, head coach Jon Miedema's team dropped a 5-4 decision at Lake Forest.
 
Grinnell jumped out to a 2-1 lead after doubles action and that proved to be the difference as the two teams split the three singles matches.
 
Augustana's number three team of senior Connor Woolf (Evanston HS, Evanston, Ill.) and freshman Jack Morkin (Normal University HS, Bloomington, Ill.) picked up a hard-fought 9-7 win over Tracy Johnson and Sam Catanzaro for the lone doubles victory.
 
The Vikings' number one team of sophomores Samuel Totten (Normal University HS, Normal, Ill.) and Eric Pohl (Fremd HS, Palatine, Ill.) fell to Jase Coloma and Tom Pitcher 8-4. The number two duo of senior Austin Schoeck (Alleman Catholic HS, Rock Island, Ill.) senior Harald Olsson (Hersby Gymnasium, Stockholm, Sweden) dropped a similar 8-4 decision to C.J. Ruy and Cole Miller.
 
When the action switched to singles play Augustana was able to win three of the six but couldn't get the elusive fourth victory that would have turned the tide in the match. Totten beat Miller 6-1; 6-4 at number one and Pohl defeated Johnson 6-7; 6-2; 10-2 at number two. Freshman Carl Christensen (Hoellviken, Sweden) beat Bryson Cole 6-3; 6-1 at number four.
 
Senior Patrick Lenz (Villanova Prep, Ojai, Calif.) fell 6-7; 3-6 to Pitcher at number three. Morkin lost 4-6; 4-6 to Catanzaro at number five and Schoeck lost 1-6; 3-6 to Beau Bressler at number six.
 
The Vikings will open College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin play on Tuesday, April 5 with a 2:00 p.m. home match against Illinois Wesleyan at the Lower Campus Courts.