The No. 58 ranked Harding men's tennis team battled their way to a 4-2 win over No. 15 Washburn in the First Round of the MIAA/GAC Men's Tennis Championships on Wednesday (April 27) at the Edmond Center Court before falling 4-0 to No. 17 Ouachita Baptist in the semifinals.
 
Against Washburn, the Bisons (10-9) opened the match with their eighth sweep of the doubles point of the season. The No. 31-ranked doubles team in Division II of Dani Ortiz and Arthur Bellan started the match strong with a 6-2 win at No. 1 singles over the No. 26-ranked doubles team. The win was the third win over a nationally ranked opponent of the season for the duo.
 
Morgan Salvan and Alvaro De Lorenzo continued the action with a 7-5 victory at No. 2 doubles. The win now makes Salvan and De Lorenzo, the 2^nd Team All-MIAA/GAC selection at No. 2 doubles, 13-7 overall and 7-2 at No. 2.
 
The Ichabods (17-5) bounced back to begin singles action and took a 2-1 match lead with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. The Bisons leveled the match when Milosh Petrovic improved to 5-1 on the season at the No. 5 line with a 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) victory.
 
Salvan put the Bisons up 3-2 with a come-from-behind victory at No. 3. Salvan secured the 72^nd singles victory of his career with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory. Salvan is now alone at sixth for most singles victories in a career in program history.
 
Minutes later, Cas de Ruiter clinched the match for the Bisons with just his second win of the season. De Ruiter easily won his opening set 6-1 before falling in the second set forcing a winner-take-all third set. De Ruiter matched his opening set score of 6-1 to take the victory at No. 6 and move the Bisons into the MIAA/GAC Men's Tennis Championships semifinals.
 
In the second match of the day, the Bisons fell behind after getting swept in doubles action. Harding fell at No. 2 6-3 against the No. 25-ranked doubles team in the nation after dropping a 6-3 match at No. 3.
 
The Tigers (16-3) won the first three singles matches at No. 1, No. 4, and No. 6 to take the match 4-0. Salvan and Petrovic both had won their first sets at No. 3 and No. 5 before play was stopped with the match clinched.
 
The Bisons will now wait to see if they qualify for the NCAA Central Region Tournament next week. The field will be announced at the beginning of next week.