ORANGE, Calif. — Cal Lutheran men's tennis had a slow start and eventually fell to Chapman 5-4 on Friday afternoon.

For the third consecutive dual between the Kingsmen and Panthers, the score was decided by one point. CLU won the first two before Chapman won this one. 

Doubles play went back-and-forth with Chapman taking points at the No. 1 and 3, and Cal Lutheran taking a point at the No. 2. 

The Panthers led off the scoring and took the No. 1 spot as Jacob Bear and Corey Karen fell 8-7 (7). The Kingsmen bounced back quick and tied the score at the No. 3 as Charlie Spina and Sean Yaghoubi won 8-4. Chapman then took a 2-1 advantage to singles as Darvel Lossangoye and Ryan Murphy narrowly lost 8-7 (4) at the No. 2. 

Chapman kept the momentum and started off singles with two straight points as they pushed their lead to 4-1. Shawn Rothermel fell 6-3, 6-2, at the No. 6 spot and Bear was defeated 6-1, 6-2, at the No. 3.

The Kingsmen fired back and scored three straight points to tie the dual at 4-4. Lossangoye took the win 6-2, 6-1, at the No. 5, Isaiah Volk went the distance and won 7-6, 3-6, 6-1, at the No. 4 and Karen was victorious 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, at the No. 2.

The dual came down to the No. 1 spot. It was the Panthers that had the final say as Spina fell 7-5, 6-7, 6-2.

The Kingsmen have one more non-conference dual before ending the season with Chapman. Up next is Ventura Community College on Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Cal Lutheran.  

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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director