CLEVELAND, Ohio – The No. 10 Washington University in St. Louis men's tennis team faced its toughest day of the season with a pair of ranked opponents in No. 4 Denison and No. 17 Kenyon as part of a dual match invitational in Cleveland, dropping.

Match 1: Denison 5, WashU 2
Facing its second top-five team of the season, the Bears dropped a tough 5-2 decision to Denison.

The Big Red were able to get things started 1-0 by claiming two of the three doubles matches. WashU did pick up a win at the top spot with seniors Pato Garcia Muriel and Stefan Hester getting a 6-1 win over No. 2 Kael Shalin Shah and Ethan Green.

In singles, Denison was able to clinch the match, winning four of the six matches. The Bears got wins at the top two spots, with senior Eric Kuo winning a straight-sets match 6-3, 6-3.

In a top-50 matchup, junior No. 33 Colin Scruggs won his first set against No. 6 Shah before dropping the second, 6-1. Scruggs would mimic his first set and take the match 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

Match 2: Kenyon 4, WashU 3
Kenyon claimed the doubles point but had to win the final two singles matches on court to stage a comeback as WashU had a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to close out the day.

Kuo and junior Colin Fox got things started in doubles with a 6-4 win at number two, but the Bears were unable to win either of the 7-5 matches at number one or three as the Owls claimed the doubles point.

Kuo finished his second singles win of the day first with a 6-4, 6-0 win at number two. First-year Avi Mahajan gave the Bears a 2-1 advantage with a 6-3, 6-2 win at number six before Kenyon pulled even with a win at number one.

Junior Case Fagan got WashU within one point from the win with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win at number four. However, the Owls won in straight sets at number five before completing the comeback and clinching the win with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 win at number three.

WashU will play one final match in Ohio on Sunday with a contest against UAA opponent Case Western Reserve at 8 a.m. ET.