The Oglethorpe men's tennis team, currently ranked 16th in the Atlantic South region, got off to a 1-1 start in SAA play this weekend, defeating Centre 5-0 on Saturday before falling to Atlantic South No. 9 Sewanee 7-2 on Sunday.

The Petrels got a 5-0 victory over the Centre Colonels on Saturday evening in a match that was played to decision because of multiple rain delays during the day. The home side swept the doubles competition, getting an 8-4 victory from C.J. Antonio and Nick Roby, an 8-6 victory from Ben Hirsch and Cedric Andre, and an 8-6 victory from Kirk Zhao and Craig Borne. The doubles team of Antonio and Hirsch was ranked 15th in the latest regional rankings, but the two were split up on this day to good effect.

In the singles competition, Hirsch and Andre both got straight set victories to close the match down. Hirsch won 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2 while Andre took the No. 5 match 6-1, 6-2. The Petrels led three of the remaining four singles matches when they were called, as well.

On Sunday against the regionally-ranked Sewanee team, the Petrels fought hard but could not quite keep up with the high-powered Tigers. They got an 8-5 win from Antonio and Roby at No. 1 doubles, but Sewanee took the other two doubles matches to take a 2-1 lead. Then, in a highly-competitive singles portion, Sewanee won five of the six matches played. Andre won his match 6-2, 6-4 for the lone Petrel victory. Roby got to a first-set tiebreak at No. 3, but lost the breaker 8-6 and fell 6-2 in the second set. Antonio and Sewanee's Avery Schrober, ranked 11th in the region, engaged in a very competitive back-and-forth battle at No. 1. Schrober won the first set, 7-5, then took down a second-set tiebreak, 7-5, to win the hard-fought battle of No. 1s.

The Petrels move to 7-8 on the season, 1-1 in SAA play. They'll look to get back to .500 on the season and pick up their second SAA win when they take on Berry on the Howell Tennis Courts at 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.