Winona, Minn. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's tennis team dropped its season-opening match to Carleton College (Minn.) 6-3 Saturday afternoon at the Winona Tennis Center.  The Eagles, ranked 13th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Midwest Region falls to 0-1 while the Knights, ranked 11th, improve to 2-0.  

UWL fell behind 2-1 after doubles action.  The #1 team of Tony Mirasola and Kyle Wogahn fell 8-5 to Christian Nagy and Jordan O'Kelly.  At #2, the Eagles got a strong effort from Joey Schneider and Matt Lindsay, who won 8-3 over Kevin Mei and Andrew Qi.  Austin Stefanich and Sam Gowan fell 8-3 to Ezra Frankel and Kevin Hurley at the #3 spot.  

"All of our doubles teams are new as of two weeks ago", said UWL Head Coach Bill Hehli.  "I think we played pretty well at the top two spots, and the win at #2 was very impressive."

The Eagles picked up wins at the #3 and #6 singles spots on Saturday.  Wogahn defeated Nagy 6-3, 6-4 at #3 while Lindsay beat Mark Conrad 7-5, 6-4 at #6.  

"Kyle was very poised in his first singles match", added Hehli.  "The player from Carleton was tough, and Kyle really handled the pressure well. Matt was great for us today.  He lost to that same player last year, and this year was able to come back and beat him.  I'm really happy with the way he played." 

At #1 singles, UWL's Mirasola was outlasted by O'Kelly 5-7, 6-4, 10-6.  Stefanich fell to Qi 6-1, 6-1 at #2, while Simon Brandt lost a battle with Patton McClelland at #4 7-6, 6-2.  Schnieder fell to Aaron Goodman 6-2, 6-1 at #5 singles.  

"Carleton is a very good team, and we hung with them all day," said Hehli.  "We know what we need to work on, and will get better.  Even though we are young and inexperienced, we showed alot of fight."

UWL returns to action Saturday, February 6 at eighth ranked Coe College (Iowa) at 9 a.m.  The Eagles will play the University of Dubuque (Iowa) at 1:30 p.m. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.