NEWBERG, Ore. – Lewis & Clark College men's tennis opened the 2026 season and Northwest Conference schedule with a 4-3 loss at George Fox University on Sunday afternoon.
 
THE BASICS
 
George Fox 4, Lewis & Clark 3
Lewis & Clark (0-1, 0-1 NWC)
George Fox (1-1, 1-0 NWC)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Junior Noah Sutin went 2-0 on the day as the River Otters split singles play with three wins, but Lewis & Clark could not recover after the Bruins claimed the doubles point with victories at Nos. 2 and 3.
 
George Fox secured the doubles point by winning two of three matches. At No. 3, Bernardo Martinez and Joseph Vece defeated seniors Landon Cronin and Spencer Loucks, 6-2, in the first match to finish. Zach Moore and Aiden Cruz then downed first-year Kaden Sigurdsson and senior Wade McDermott, 6-2, at No. 2 to clinch the point. Sutin and senior Kai Wills provided the lone doubles win for Lewis & Clark, beating Ikuho Ebisu and Keita Shoji, 6-2, at No. 1.
 
Lewis & Clark responded in singles play. Sutin recorded the first singles win for the River Otters, defeating Luis Hernandez, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 2 in the most lopsided result of the afternoon. Sophomore Arnav Bishnoi followed with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Ebisu at No. 4 to give Lewis & Clark two singles points.
 
George Fox, however, picked up three singles victories of its own. Cruz opened singles play with a 6-2, 6-4 win over McDermott at No. 5, and Shoji controlled his match against Wills at No. 3, winning 6-1, 6-2.
 
The deciding match came at No. 1 singles. Sigurdsson, who made his NWC and collegiate debut, took the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (5), but Moore responded with a 6-4 second set and a 6-4 third set to clinch the team victory for the Bruins.
 
Cronin and Martinez played the final match of the day at No. 6 singles. Cronin claimed the opening set, 7-6 (5), before Martinez evened the match with a 7-6 (1) second-set win. Cronin then won the super tiebreaker, 10-8, to secure Lewis & Clark's third singles point, though the team result had already been decided.
 
BY THE NUMBERS 

• Sunday's match marked the season opener for Lewis & Clark in both overall and conference play.
• Sutin lost only one game across two sets at No. 2 singles, the fewest games conceded by any player in the match.
• Cronin's three-set win at No. 6 was the longest match of the afternoon, requiring two tiebreakers and a super tiebreaker.
• All three doubles matches ended by identical 6-2 scores.

WHO'S NEXT
 
Lewis & Clark travels to Chapman University on Friday, Feb. 13, for a 2 p.m. match in Orange, California, beginning a four-match Southern California road trip.