Box Score St. Louis, Mo. - The Marian men's tennis team came up short Thursday afternoon as they aimed for their third consecutive win, dropping a road contest at Missouri Baptist 4-3. Marian drops to 16-9 overall on the 2022-23 campaign with the defeat.

In doubles Marian fell on hard times, losing two of the three matches to drop the opening point of the day. Ashwin Bhat and Jones McNamar claimed Marian's lone win in doubles on the top court, while at No. 2 and No. 3 the duos of Shadi Al Tori/Jake Giles and Mark Griffin/Jona Henze were defeated. 

Into singles play the Knights were able to tie the match with the first completed result, as Griffin scored a 6-3, 6-2 win over Dragan Omcikus. McNamar was able to give Marian the lead with his 6-2, 6-2 win over Youssef Mokhles at No. 5 singles, but the match reverted back to a draw as No. 2 singles ended, with Dmitrii Voshchenkov falling to Luca Ebenriter 6-2, 6-3. 

Missouri Baptist jumped back into the lead as Nico Sanchez defeated Al Tori in three sets, topping the freshman 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-4). Trailing 3-2 in the match, Marian picked up their third point of the day to tie once again, with Henze claiming a three-set win in his match at No. 4. Henze won by a 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7) score. With the match tied 3-3, the final point hung in the balance at No. 3 singles, with Bhat playing Tim Tokmakov. After dropping the first set 7-5, the junior rallied to win 6-2, forcing a third-set tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, the Marian product came up just short with Missouri Baptist scoring the winning point, as Tokmakov won the extra set 10-6.

Marian will look to rebound from the loss when they play Lindsey Wilson on Friday afternoon, with the match starting at 3 p.m. at the Marian Tennis Courts.

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