WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The William and Mary men's tennis team suffered a pair of narrow setbacks as part of a Saturday doubleheader at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. The Green and Gold dropped its opening match of the day to Ivy League foe Yale, 4-2, before UMBC rallied to clip the Tribe, 4-3, in the nightcap. W&M falls to 10-7 on the year, while Yale pushes its ledger to 6-2 and UMBC improves to 4-2. 

In doubles, the Tribe and Bulldogs split matches at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions with the initial point of the match coming down to a tiebreaker at No. 2. The senior tandem of Will Juggins and Aaron Chaffee won its third straight match at the top spot, downing Martin Svenning and Ziqi Wang, 6-3.  At No. 2, the Tribe pair of freshman Christian Cargill and junior Scott Huang jumped out to an early advantage, but the Yale team of Fedor Andrienko and Stefan Doehler rallied to force a tiebreaker. The Bulldog tandem took an early advantage in the breaker and despite the Tribe duo closing the gap, Andrienko and Doehler clinched the point with a 7-6 (5) win.

Juggins and freshman Alec Miller both picked up their 11th singles wins of the year at No. 2 and No. 6, respectively. Juggins won his fourth straight with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Wang, while Miller upended Andrienko, 6-4, 6-3. It marked Juggins seventh dual-match win of the year, inclduing his fifth at No. 2.

In its second match of the day with UMBC, the Tribe jumped out to the early lead thanks to the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3. After dropping its first match of the season against Yale, the Tribe's second team of Cargill and Huang bounced back with a convincing 6-1 win over Jaan Kononov and Melker Svard. The duo improved to 5-1 on the year. The sophomore pairing of Addison Appleby and Damon Niquet clinched the pairs point with a 6-3 win over Eliott Loubatie and Justin Carter. The Tribe duo upped its mark to 8-4 on the year.

UMBC picked up straight-set wins, while the Tribe countered with victories from Niquet (No. 4) and Miller (No. 6) to give the home side a 3-2 advantage. Niquet improved to a perfect 3-0 at No. 4 with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Alex Drean. He upped his overall mark to 11-6, including a 7-3 ledger in dual-match play. Miller won his sixth straight match as he downed Daniel Gray, 6-4, 6-3. The Tribe rookie moved to 12-6 on the year and 9-4 in dual-match competition.

The balance of the match came down to a pair of three-set tilts at No. 3 and No. 5. In both instances, W&M jumped out to a set advantage only to have UMBC rally to pick up the win and clinch the Retriever victory. At No. 3, Appleby won the first set in a tiebreaker, before UMBC's Melker Svard came back to win the second, 6-0, and third, 6-2, sets to take the match. Huang won the first set from Loubatie, 6-4, at No. 5, but the Retriever player rallied with 6-0, 6-3 triumphs in the second and third sets.

The Tribe returns to action with a trio of contests next weekend in closing out a nine-match homestand. The Green and Gold hosts a Saturday, Feb. 28, doubleheader with CAA foe James Madison and former league counterpart George Mason. W&M faces the Dukes at 10 a.m. with the match against the Patriots to follow at 4 p.m. The Tribe hosts No. 28 N.C. State on Sunday, March 1, at 3 p.m.

No. 1 – Tyler Lu (Yale) def. Christian Cargill (W&M) – 6-3, 7-5

No. 2 – Will Juggins (W&M) def. Ziqi Wang (Yale) – 6-3, 6-3

No. 3 – Martin Svenning (Yale) def. Addison Appleby (W&M) – 7-6, 6-2

No. 4 – Damon Niquet (W&M) vs. Daniel Faierman (Yale) – DNF, 6-4, 3-6, 2-2

No. 5 – Stefan Doehler (Yale) def. Scott Huang (W&M) – 6-4, 7-6 (7)

No. 6 – Alec Miller (W&M) def. Fedor Andrienko (Yale) – 6-4, 6-3

No. 1 – Juggins/Chaffee (W&M) def. Svenning/Wang (Yale) – 6-3

No. 2 – Andrienko/Doehler (Yale) def. Cargill/Huang (W&M) – 7-6 (5)

No. 3 – Lu/Hagermoser (Yale) def. Appleby/Niquet (W&M) – 6-3

No. 1 – Jaan Kononov (UMBC) def. Christian Cargill (W&M) – 7-5, 6-4

No. 2 – Justin Carter (UMBC) def. Will Juggins (W&M) – 6-4, 6-3

No. 3 – Melker Svard (UMBC) def. Addison Appleby (W&M) – 6-7, 6-0, 6-2

No. 4 – Damon Niquet (W&M) def. Alex Drean (UMBC) – 6-3,  6-3

No. 5 – Eliott Loubatie (UMBC) def. Scott Huang (W&M) – 4-6, 6-0, 6-3

No. 6 – Alec Miller (W&M) def. Daniel Gray (UMBC) – 6-4, 6-3

No. 1 – Chaffee/Juggins (W&M) vs. Drean/Gray (UMBC) – DNF, 5-6

No. 2 – Cargill/Huang (W&M) def. Kononov/Svard (UMBC) – 6-1

No. 3 – Appleby/Niquet (W&M) def. Carter/Loubatie (UMBC) – 6-3

Finishing Order: 2, 3*