CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Western Michigan men's tennis season came to an end with a hard-fought 4-1 loss to Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament at the University of Illinois' Atkins Tennis Center on Friday afternoon.
 
For the third time in program history WMU earned the doubles point in a NCAA Tournament match. The Broncos mixed up their lineup, pairing senior Jannik Opitz and junior Peter Kuszynski together at No. 1 and senior Zac Faveri and freshman Joaquin Caballer at No. 3. Juniors Jack Randall and Fynn Lohse remained the same at No. 3. WMU was down 1-0 after Faveri and Caballer lost 6-1 until Randall and Loshe defeated Brandon Ancona and William Howells, 6-3, to tie it up at 1-1.  Opitz and Kuszynski battled the No. 22-ranked doubles team in the nation of Tristan McCormick and Alex Nefve to a 6-4 win and give the Broncos the point.
 
"We got off to a great start winning an exciting doubles point," said head coach Dave Morin. "We carried that over to the beginning of singles play. We were even in most of the singles matches and up 5-2 at three and 4-0 at five and then things began to unravel on us. Credit to Notre Dame for stepping up their games."
 
Ciamara defeated Kuszynski at No. 2, 6-4, 6-0 to tie up the match at 1-1. Ancona beat Benjamin George at No. 6, 6-3, 6-2 to push the Fighting Irish ahead. Jackson Boone fell to Howells 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4 before Connor Fu sealed the match for UND after beating Arjun Honnappa at No. 5, 6-4, 6-2. Opitz's match against 36th-ranked Nefve went unfinished. Nefve took the first set 7-6 on a 7-3 tiebreaker and was deadlocked at 3-3 when the match ended. Lohse battled McCormick to a first set loss, 7-6, after a 7-3 breaker and the match was called in the second set.
 
"It's disappointing to lose this match but it doesn't discount the fact that we had a tremendous season going 22-2. We are clearly one of the best teams to suit up for the Brown & Gold. We will miss our seniors Jannik Opitz and Zac Faveri but with us returning a majority of our team, the future looks really bright for us."
 
Opitz ends his career with the Broncos as the all-time total wins, singles wins and doubles wins leader.