CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Emerson Men's Tennis Team faced a tough opponent Thursday afternoon as they traveled to MIT to take on a potent Engineers team in a 9-0 loss. Kevin Blisniuk hung tough in the number one spot but ultimately the Lions couldn't edge the Engineers, dropping to 4-5 on the year while MIT moves to 11-3.

With the Lions only able to travel five athletes on the day, Emerson opened up the match at a disadvantage, being able to only field two doubles teams and five singles players to spot the Engineers two points to open up. Doubles action saw Mitchell Lance and Brent Walkoff take on Edwing Zhang and Matthew Skalak in the number one spot while teammates Kevin Blisniuk and Nate Fuller took to the number two spot against Robert Wheeler and Biafra Ahanonu.

While Lance and Walkoff could only take a set from their MIT opponents, Blisniuk and Fuller stepped up for a gritty match in the number two spot as both duos battled back and forth set by set as the Lions rallied up for five sets in the match before the Engineers finally upped the ante and took the 8-5 win to give MIT the doubles sweep.

Singles action saw MIT come out strong in the two, four and five sports as they took straight set wins over EC's Brent Walkoff, Nate Fuller and Roland Lewan. Mitchell Lance in the three spot decided to give Curtis Wu a run for his money as Wu came out strong to take a 6-1 win over the Lion. Lance wasn't going to give Wu the easy sweep though as the lead swung back and forth as the Lion clawed his way to five set points. In the end though Wu was able to push ahead in the tiebreak to win 7-5.

Kevin Blisniuk also battled his MIT opponent Larry Pang in the number one spot as well, albeit with similar results as Pang had to wrestle a gritty 7-5 win from the Lion who couldn't seem to muster up the same steam in the second set, falling 7-5, 6-1 to close out the match.

The Lions return to the courts this weekend as they host Johnson and Wales this Saturday afternoon.