Pella, IA – The Prairie Fire lost their first matches of the season in a triangular hosted by Central College on Saturday.

Knox opened against Morningside College, an NAIA school from Sioux City, Iowa, and lost 5-4.  The Prairie Fire ended the day with a 6-3 defeat at the hands of host Central.

Morningside (1-1) returned three of their top four players from last season, when they set a school record for victories with nine. 

The Prairie Fire held the edge in doubles wins with two but couldn’t get the three wins in singles play needed to prevail in the match.

Sophomore Jonathan Ng (Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong International School) topped Reid Rosen of Morningside 6-3, 6-4 in #2 singles.  Senior David Ham (Lakewood, WA, Shadow Ridge) had the other singles win for Knox, 1-6, 6-3, 10-6, in the #4 flight against Hunter Renn.

Morningside’s Austin Grundy downed sophomore  Karolis Ruzgas (Downers Grove, IL, Downers Grove North) in #1 singles 7-5, 6-1.  Sophomore Walter Palmer (Wilmette, IL, New Trier) lost his first #3 singles match, but didn’t go down without a fight.  Gustav Hollnagel won the first set 6-3 before Palmer responded by taking the second set 6-2.  Hollnagel held on for a 10-7 set three triumph and won the match.

Alex Struck defeated sophomore Dustin Loch (Glen Ellyn, IL, Glenbard West) 6-1, 6-2 in #5 singles and first-year Pragyaditya Mukerjee (Kolkata, India, The Cambridge School) lost to Jordan Ogren in their #6 singles match 6-2, 6-2.

Knox’s top two doubles teams earned wins against Morningside.  Ruzgas and Palmer stopped Rosen and Hollnagel 8-5 in #1 doubles.  Ng and Ham had to grind it out against Grundy and Struck in #2 doubles in a 9-8 Prairie Fire win.

The Mustangs avoided being swept in doubles as Renn and Michael Nichols edged Loch and Mukerjee 8-6.

The Prairie Fire followed by squaring off against Central College.

Ruzgas won his #1 singles match against Kyle Freischlag 7-6, 6-3.  Knox’s other singles victory was by Palmer, who improved to 3-1 in the #3 slot after he battled to defeat Collin Schares 6-4, 2-6, 10-7.  The singles loss was the first of the spring season by Schares (3-1).

The Dutch won the #2 and #4 through #6 singles matches.  Ng dropped his first #2 singles match of the season against West Adelman 7-5, 6-3 after winning his first three.  Adelman improved to 5-0 in singles play.  Ham also saw a string of three straight singles victories to kick off the season come to an end.  Ham fell to Tim Kahl 6-0, 6-0 in their #4 singles match.  Kahl, like Adelman, has won his first five matches.

Loch lost to Zane Hendricks 6-0, 6-0 in #5 singles and Mukerjee came up short against Josh Forst 6-1, 6-0 in #6 singles.

Knox (2-2) downed the Dutch in the #1 doubles match.  Ruzgas and Palmer defeated Freishlag and Adelman in a close contest, 9-8.  Ruzgas and Palmer improved their doubles record to 4-0 while Freishlag and Adelman suffered their first #1 doubles loss after winning their first four matches.

Central’s #2 doubles team of Kahl and John Seier got past Ng and Ham 8-6.  The Dutch’s Hendricks and Forst defeated the Prairie Fire’s #3 doubles team of Loch and Mukerjee 8-3.

Central has five starters back from last season’s squad that finished with an 11-12 record.  The Dutch, who won both of their matches played in the fall, opened the spring season with a 9-0 victory against Edgewood College on February 3 in Waverly, Iowa. 

The Prairie Fire also began the spring season with a win over Edgewood.  Knox defeated the Eagles 9-0 on February 2 at a three-team meet in Dubuque, Iowa.

Central (5-0) stayed unbeaten so far this season by handing Morningside (1-1) an 8-1 loss.

Knox plays its indoor home opener on Friday against Western Illinois University.  The match begins at 3:00 p.m. at Lakeside Tennis Center in Galesburg.

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