GEORGETOWN, Texas — The Southwestern men's tennis team lost its exhibition match against the NCAA Division II University of St. Mary's Rattlers, falling 6-3. 

Vesko Lekovic and Hemanshu Rambojun were spectacular at No. 1 doubles, defeating Jake Faryniarz and Pablo Munoz Baroja 8-6. Next, the Rattlers scored an 8-3 victory with Niklas Knoerr and Nicolas Llosa winning 8-3 over Hunter Bajoit and Jared Burton. Finally, Oscar Roy and Carlos Esteban Rodero secured the doubles advantage for Southwestern with an 8-6 win over Sebastian Azcui and Chad Nguyen. 

"We played excellent doubles at No. 1 and 3," Southwestern head tennis coach Billy Porters says. "Vesko served out a huge game at 7-6 for the win, and Carlos did the exact same thing at No. 3 with composure." 

Bajoit dropped a hard-fought 7-6 first set, losing the tiebreaker 7-2 before falling 6-1 in the second set to Nguyen at No. 1 singles. Lekovic took Faaryniarz to three sets in No. 2 singles, winning the first set 6-4 before dropping the next two 6-2, 6-1. 

St. Mary's Baroja bested Anton Borovik 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3 singles, but Southwestern's Steven Tibbetts fought back from a first-set loss to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 over Knoerr.  

"Steven battled hard all night, and his resilience after being up in the first set and losing it was impressive," Porter says. "He never got too down on himself and played a convincing second set."  

Oskar Irdoja eked out a 9-7 tiebreaker over Southwestern's Oscar Roy, winning the set 7-6, then finished the match with a 6-4 second set. Llosa defeated Travis Rafferty 6-1, 7-5.  

"For what we asked the guys to do, this was one of our better performances of the season," Porter says. "We are putting a huge emphasis on our shot tolerance, and this was a match we started to see the guys really embrace the importance of that."  

Southwestern will host Austin College on Friday, April 1, at 5:00 p.m.