CLAREMONT, Calf.–Playing against a pair of foes ranked in the top 10, the 29th-ranked Swarthmore College men's tennis team fell to No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer and No. 7 Carnegie Mellon by identical 7-2 scores on Friday and Saturday, March 10-11.

On Friday, the Garnet suffered defeat to the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens after falling behind 3-0 after doubles. In singles action, Mark Fallati picked up his first win with a 6-2, 3-6, 1-0(9) slugfest against Graham Maassen at first singles. In the sixth singles spot, Blake Oetting also won in a super tiebreaker by a 3-6, 6-3, 1-0(6) score.

Against Carnegie Mellon, the first doubles team of Fallati and Powell nearly pulled out a victory, but conceded a break and ultimately lost 8-6. Fallati battled fourth-ranked Michael Rozenvasser at first singles and narrowly lost by a 6-2, 3-6, 0-1(6) count. Josh Powell and Ari Cepelewicz prevailed in third-set tiebreakers at fourth and fifth singles, respectively. Powell won 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(6) while Cepelewicz triumphed 7-5, 5-7, 1-0(4).

Swarthmore opens conference play on the road at Gettysburg on Saturday, March 25 at 1 p.m.