WHITTER, Calif. – The 26^th-ranked Skidmore College men's tennis team put up a strong fight early against No. 3 Bowdoin, but the defending NCAA Tournament finalists were able to pull away in a 9-0 decision Tuesday afternoon.
 
Skidmore falls to 5-3 on the season, with its three losses coming to three of the top seven teams in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national polls. Bowdoin improves to 2-0.
 
The Thoroughbreds had a pair of chances to put an early scare into the third-ranked Polar Bears. At first doubles, the team of JT Wynne and Noah Williamson fell into an early 4-0 hole but battled back, eventually tying the match at seven. The Bowdoin team of Grant Urken and Jerry Jiang recovered, taking the tiebreaking set by a 7-3 score for the 8-7 win.
 
At second doubles, the pair of Suraj Mahtani and Travis Leaf went point-for-point with Larry Zhao and Justin Wang. With the match tied at five, the Skidmore duo grabbed a point to take a 6-5 lead, but the Bowdoin duo won a pair of games to take a 7-6 lead. Mahtani and Leaf then tied the match at seven, before Zhao and Wang won the tiebreak by a 7-5 score.
 
Bowdoin won its match at No. 3 doubles and swept the six singles matches to earn the victory. Williamson won a set at No. 4 against Wang, the 35th-ranked singles player in the nation. He would fall in three sets to Wang, 6-1, 5-7, 10-8.
 
Skidmore will look to get back on track in its next match on Wednesday at No. 29 Caltech. The match is slated to begin at 3 p.m. eastern time.