KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Ursinus men's tennis team finished up their Florida Spring Break trip by dropping a tough 5-4 match to Otterbein on Friday afternoon at Oak Street Park.
 
 
The loss is the first for the Bears after they had matched their best start in school history. Meanwhile, the Cardinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) improved to 7-3 overall.
 
 
The match started with singles play and the Cardinals won four of the six matches to go into doubles play needing just one victory to win the match. Junior Will Oberholtzer suffered a 2-6, 2-6 setback to Joshua Mammen at the No. 2 spot before classmate Lars Jespersen was downed 3-6, 3-6 to Brandon Wall at No. 1 singles. Junior Ethan Yu fell 3-6, 1-6 to Jake McDivitt at No. 3 singles, but freshman Andrei Bogdan ended the Otterbein run with an exciting three set 1-6, 6-4, 10-8 triumph over Will Newberry at the No. 5 spot. Junior Darby Rogers then followed by defeating Jamie Price 6-4, 7-5 at No. 4 singles to continue the Bears momentum. However, senior Noah Mandel dropped a tough 5-7, 6-4, 10-12 No. 6 singles match to Boban Mihajlov.
 
 
Otterbein clinched the team win from the conclusion of the first doubles match at the No. 3 spot when the duo of Bogdan and Mandel suffered a close 8-5 loss to Newberry and Dylan Shook. Jespersen and Oberholtzer rebounded from singles defeats to take down Wall and Price at No. 1 doubles while Yu and Rogers finished the match by downing Mammen and McDivitt 8-6 in the No. 2 position. Rogers finished the week going 10-0 in Florida matches with five wins coming each at singles and doubles.
 
 
 
The Bears return to action on Saturday, March 18th as they will host their first home match since October by taking on Lebanon Valley at 1:00 p.m.