Box Score 1 OWATONNA, Minn. (March 28, 2026) - The Buena Vista men's tennis team returned to action on Saturday with a pair of thrilling non-conference matches that were played at the West Hills Tennis Center. The Beavers dropped a tough 4-3 decision to Ripon while suffering a hard fought 7-0 setback against Northwestern-St. Paul.

Despite being shutout by the Eagles, three singles matches came down to the third set tiebreaker and one match ended in a withdraw. Bryson Fredericksen notched a 7-6 win in his opening set but then fell 6-2 in the second and 10-5 in the tiebreaker. Against Ripon, he was also involved in a thrilling singles match that saw the two players combine for over 200 strokes in the match, including one rally that lasted just shy of 80.

Ryan Smith and Jeb Bathrick each forced the third set tiebreaker after bouncing back from an opening set loss. Both would drop the tiebreaker by identical 10-6 margins. The duo also teamed up for No. 3 doubles and were edged in a tight battle, 6-4.

"Despite falling in both of our matches today, I thought we played incredibly well," said BVU head coach Brett Groen. "Against Ripon, we quite literally had the match decided in about four or five points is all. We battled from top to bottom against them, and really turned up the heat late in that match winning three straight singles matches while two other matches were being decided by tiebreakers. Really was an intense and close match that we just fell short on. 

"With our match-up against Northwestern, on paper, they had us from top to bottom, but we still battled in each round. Again, having four different matches go into tie breaks, points that could have gone our way could have changed some of the dynamics of the match. After a long morning match, it was good to see us come back and battle and still try to get that win. A tough day on the scoreboard, but a hard fought day that we will use going forward now that we are getting into our conference season this week."

The team is now 4-6 overall and is set to begin American Rivers Conference play on Tuesday, March 31, hosting Wartburg College at 4 p.m. and then traveling to Nebraska Wesleyan on Wednesday, Apr. 1 for a 4 p.m. match.