The No. 14 University of Redlands men's tennis team completed the program's third-ever appearance at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Indoor Championship on Saturday night with a tough 2-7 loss to third-seeded Emory University (GA) in the fifth-place match. Regardless of the score, the Bulldogs finished two spots higher than their tournament seeding as a result of their high-quality and tenacious experience in Mayfield Village, OH.
For the first time all tournament, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-1 lead through the doubles. But the early advantage was not correlational in this case, as the team dropped all six singles matches to come up short.
Against sixth-ranked Emory, the No. 3 duo of junior Ted Burchett (Gold River, CA) and Tom Suchodolski (Amherst, CA) collected the first point for the Bulldogs with an 8-3 showing. The junior tandem of Nick Cummins (Rancho Mirage, CA) and Teddy Jones (St. Louis, MO) followed suit with the same outcome at No. 2.
After the Eagles cut the deficit in half with an 8-6 win at the top spot, Redlands needed three of six singles matches to pull out the victory.
However, the opponents had other plans, as they rallied for straight-set performances at Nos. 2 and 3, before Bulldog junior Patrick Lipscomb (Irvine, CA) forced an extended match at No. 1 But Emory prevailed by scores of 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Burchett also went three sets at No. 5 but came up short in modified scoring, 2-6, 6-1, 3-0.
Redlands (2-2) looks forward to the warmth of Southern California when it returns home late Sunday. The Bulldogs then take on NAIA foe and 12th-ranked Concordia University – Irvine on Feb. 28 at 3 p.m. on Verdieck Courts.
