Owatonna, MN - The MLC men's tennis team had a successful pair of matches on Saturday at a neutral site venue in Owatonna. The Knights defeated Ripon College 5-2 in the morning and topped Crown College in a nonconference match in the evening, 4-3.

MLC 5, Ripon 2

MLC picked up its first win of the season against the Redhawks, and even though Ripon won two of three doubles games to claim one point, the Knights bounced back in singles play. Although it did not count toward the final total, Gideon Heins and Isaiah Scharf had a 6-3 edge in No. 2 doubles.

MLC claimed five of the six singles games. Eli Stern took down his counterpart 6-2, 6-2 in No. 2 singles, while Heins beat his No. 3 opponent 4-6, 6-1, 1-0, finishing strong with a 10-5 decision in the third-set tiebreaker. Scharf also won in tie-breaking fashion in the third set, winning 7-5, 1-6, 1-0 (10-3) in No. 4 singles.

Matthew Koelpin won in straight sets 6-1, 6-0 in No. 5 singles, while Abraham Schlomer beat his fellow No. 6 player 6-2, 6-3.

MLC 4, Crown 3

In the second match of the day, MLC did enough to get past the Polars 4-3. The Knights took two out of three in doubles competition as Heins and Scharf won 6-2 in No. 2, while the duo of Carson Mattek/Silas Hillmer got the job done in No. 3 doubles 6-4.

With Crown taking No. 1 and No. 2 singles, the Knights won the match by winning No. 3, No. 5, and No. 6 singles. Heins came up victorious again in No. 3 6-1, 6-4, as did Koelpin 6-3, 6-2 in No. 5 and Schlomer in No. 6 6-4, 6-3.

MLC will have two weeks off before its next match at Lawrence University in Appleton on Saturday, February 28, at 3 p.m.