Knox vs. Lawrence box score

Knox vs. Monmouth box score


Galesburg, IL – The Prairie Fire came up short in its first matches played at home this season on Saturday against Lawrence University and Monmouth College.

Lawrence defeated Knox 6-3 in the first contest of the afternoon followed by a 9-0 victory by Monmouth in the Midwest Conference opener for both squads.

Winning singles matches for Knox (3-10, 0-1 MWC) against Lawrence (6-9) were first-year Walter Palmer (Wilmette, IL, New Trier) (#5 flight) and sophomore Max Gatyas (Plymouth, WI, Plymouth) (#6 flight).  Both Palmer and Gatyas won in three sets, Palmer 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 and Gatyas 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

Palmer leads the team with six singles victories.

First-year  Karolis Ruzgas (Downers Grove, IL, Downers Grove North) (#2) and junior David Ham (Lakewood, WA, Shadow Ridge) (#4) also took their singles opponents to three sets in defeat.

The Prairie Fire's #1 doubles team of senior Erik Hane (Littleton, CO, Mullen) and Palmer was victorious 8-5.  Knox lost the #2 and #3 doubles contests 8-6, but not before coming back from big deficits. 

Ruzgas and junior Shaun Mulani (Bourbonnais, IL, Bradley-Bourbannais) trailed 4-1 in their #2 match before rallying to take a 6-5 lead.  The Vikings scored the next three points to secure the victory.  The same thing happened to first-year player Jonathan Ng (Hong Kong, China) and Ham in #3 doubles.

Ng and Ham have five doubles wins so far this season, the most on the squad.

Monmouth College (9-9, 1-0 MWC) opened conference play in impressive fashion.  The closest match was #3 doubles, which  Ng and Ham lost 8-6.

The Prairie Fire next takes on Eureka College at home on Thursday at 3:00 p.m.

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