Box Score The Harding men's tennis team battled back-and-forth with Mississippi College on Monday at the Elliott Tennis Center but eventually fell 4-3 in the home opener. The loss snaps Harding's four-match win streak and drops them to 4-2 on the season. Mississippi College improves to 2-2.
The Bisons swept the doubles action for the third straight match. Milosh Petrovic and Andres Urquiola grabbed the first win with a 6-2 victory at No. 3. Cas de Ruiter and Cian Mikkelsen won their sixth straight match at No. 2, 6-3. Dani Ortiz and Teodor Zlatar went the distance and needed a tiebreaker to grab the final win at No. 1, 7-6.
The Choctaws took the first singles match to tie the dual at 1-1 before Dani Ortiz, the No. 7 ranked singles player in the country, won his fourth straight match at No. 1, 6-2, 7-5. The Choctaws tied the match again at 2-2 with a win at No. 4, before Bryce Walker grabbed his sixth straight victory at No. 5 in three sets, 2-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Mississippi College went on to take the remaining two matches in three sets at No. 3 and No. 6 to take the match 4-3.
The Bisons will travel to Memphis on Saturday for a doubleheader against West Florida at 10 a.m. and Christian Brothers at 3 p.m.