CLAREMONT, Calif. - A huge rally came up just short as the Bowdoin men's tennis team dropped its first match of the spring, 5-4, to Pomona Pitzer on Wednesday evening in a battle of nationally-ranked squads.

With the win, the 15th-ranked Sagehens improve to 8-2 on the season, while 18th-ranked Bowdoin falls to 2-1.

Pomona-Pitzer seemed to have the match in control after sweeping doubles and taking a 3-0 lead into singles play. Bowdoin, though, came out on fire in singles and came all the way back to tie the score 4-4. The Polar Bears got tremendous contributions from the bottom of the lineup, sweeping positions #3-6. All of them came via straight-set wins as Kyle Wolfe (6-0, 6-4), Chase Savage (6-1, 6-0), Luke Tercek (6-1, 6-2), and Gil Roddy (6-3, 6-3) evened the match for the Polar Bears.

The match came down to a hard-fought battle at #1 between Pomona's Connor Hudson and Bowdoin's Luke Trinka. Trinka won the first set, 7-5, but Hudson got a late break in the second set to level the match 6-3. Tied at 2-2 in the final set, Hudson broke Trinka for a 3-2 lead en route to a 6-2 decision.

The Polar Bears will take a few days off before returning to action on Saturday, March 14 at Whittier. The match is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. (PST).

Complete results will be available soon on goubears.com