The No. 30-ranked Harding men’s tennis team took an early 3-2 lead but eventually fell to No. 46-ranked Southwest Baptist 4-3 in the third straight home match for the Bisons. Harding fell to 7-3 on the year and Southwest Baptist improved to 5-6.
Harding began the match by winning the doubles point for the third straight match and the ninth time this season. Arthur Bellan and Dani Ortiz secured their ninth straight match with a 6-3 win at No. 2. Bellan and Ortiz improved to a perfect 7-0 on the year at No. 2. The Bisons fell at No. 1 before Milosh Petrovic and Diego Pierola clinched the doubles point with a 7-5 win at No. 3.
Alvaro de Lorenzo grabbed the second point of the match for the Bisons at No. 4 singles with a 6-4, 6-1 win. Southwest Baptist leveled the match with wins at No. 5 and No. 2 before Harding bounced back with a win at No. 1. Ortiz dropped the first set but responded by winning the next two sets to take his seventh win of the season 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. Southwest Baptist finished out the match with two tight wins at No. 3 and No. 6 to take the match.
The Bisons will look to bounce back when they host Auburn-Montgomery on Thursday March 17 at 10 a.m. It will be the teams’ first meeting since 1997.
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