NEWARK, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men's tennis team dropped a close match to NJIT Saturday afternoon, falling 4-3.
 
The Knights (0-2) won three of the six singles matches, but the Highlanders (1-2) came away with the doubles point and won three of the singles matches to pull out the win.
 
Freshman Mehdi Dhouib earned his first singles dual match win of the season at the number one position. Dhouib took the first set against his Highlander opponent but dropped the second. The freshman powered then through a strong third set and earned a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 victory.
 
Sophomores Maciej Autuch and Eduardo Cabral also picked up singles wins for the Knights at the no. 4 and 6 spots, respectively. Both Knights won in three sets, with Autuch working his way toward a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 win, and Cabral battled back after dropping his first set to earn a 6-7 (2), 6-4, 10-6 victory. Cabral is now 2-0 in singles matches this spring.
 
Sophomore Andris Gudins played a close match in his no. 2 singles bout with NJIT's Abdullah Fouad. Gudins won the first set, 7-5, but suffered a close 6-7 (5) loss in the second set, and his NJIT counterpart finished the match strong by taking the third set by a 6-3 margin.
 
Sophomore Moric Budinszky and junior Ivan Solans Diaz also competed in singles for the Knights. Both fell by a 6-3 margin and played valiantly in the second set but lost out by slim margins, with Budinszky falling 3-6, 5-7 and Solans Diaz edged 3-6, 6-7 (5).
 
Each of the three doubles matches were decided by slim margins, with the Knights winning at least four games in each of the bouts. Cabral and Solans Diaz at the no. 2 spot played the closest match, forcing a tiebreaker with their opponents that ended with FDU on the short end of a 7-6 (3) match.
 
The Knights return to action on Thursday when they play at Queens College at 11 a.m.
 
BOX SCORE
DOUBLES
Tomi Antoljak/Zac Castagna (NJIT) def. Mehdi Dhouib/Andris Gudins (FDU), 6-4
Lukas Zvikas/George Svensson (NJIT) def. Ivan Solans Diaz/Eduardo Cabral (FDU), 7-6 (3)
Abdullah Fouad/Aleksa Petrovic (NJIT) def. Moric Budinszky/Maciej Autuch (FDU), 7-5
 
SINGLES
Dhouib (FDU) def. Antoljak (NJIT), 6-2, 1-6, 6-3
Fouad (NJIT) def. Gudins (FDU), 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3
Zvikas (NJIT) def. Budinszky (FDU), 6-3, 7-5
Autuch (FDU) def. Castagna (NJIT), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4
Petrovic (NJIT) def. Solans Diaz (FDU), 6-3, 7-6 (5)
Cabral (FDU) def. Svensson (NJIT), 6-7 (2), 6-4, 10-6