Box Score MATCH RESULTS (PDF)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Citadel men's tennis team played one of the most competitive matches of the young season on Monday afternoon, but ultimately fell 6-1 on the road to the Crimson Tide of Alabama.

"Today's matches were ones where we had plenty of opportunities despite falling behind early. We were able to battle back and our guys pushed Alabama all match long," said head coach Chuck Kriese. "Alabama was better in the clutch and they were better at the end. They are very well coached and the match was a hard-fought one. What the guys need to take away from these matches in the first part of the season is to advance the ball and learn how to have competitive excellence for long periods of time, especially at the end of the match when it is the most critical time in tennis if you want to be good.

"This being the last match on the current trip, I was very proud that the team persisted so very hard," Kriese continued. "They showed great character and worked hard the entire match. Our body language and our hard work put pressure on the other team. The unfortunate but good thing is that growth comes from pain and although we have to go through a lot of pain to continue to grow, the guys understand this now and I believe that they will continue to pay a bigger and bigger price in practice to be able to get over the hump in order to establish our program once and for all as one to be reckoned with."

Alabama started the day off by taking the doubles point despite The Citadel being well represented by Willem van Zyl and Gavin Stewart at No. 1 doubles, Matthew Henson and Will Graham at No. 2 doubles and Roy Hobson and Jack Pyritz at No. 3 doubles. Van Zyl and Stewart fell 6-1 to Thibault Cancel and Alexey Nesterov while Henson and Graham fell 6-2 to Riccardo Roberto and Zhe Zhou. Hobson and Pyritz fell 6-3 to Sam Fischer and Grant Stuckey.

In singles action, Henson claimed the Bulldogs' first point of the season against an SEC opponent as he took down Fischer 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8) at No. 5 singles. Stewart also put up a great fight as he was edged 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) by Roberto at No. 4 singles.

Van Zyl fell 6-4, 7-5 at No. 1 singles to Zhou while Hobson fell 6-2, 6-0 to Edson Ortiz at No. 2. Pyritz fell 6-1, 601 to Nesterov at No. 3 singles and Graham rounded out the field with a 6-3, 6-1 loss to Stuckey at No. 6 singles.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will have a few days to return to Charleston before closing out the current stretch of road matches with a doubleheader on Sunday, Jan. 21 at Tennessee. The Citadel's first home match will be Saturday, Jan. 27 against Eastern Washington.

For more information and score updates on The Citadel men's tennis team, follow @CitadelOlympic on Twitter or visit CitadelSports.com.