Appleton, WI /Fond Du Lac, WI – The Prairie Fire split a pair of non-conference matches against Lawrence University and Ripon College on Saturday.

Knox fell to Lawrence 8-1 before bouncing back to defeat Ripon 5-4 and snap a nine-match skid.

The Prairie Fire avoided a sweep by the Vikings (8-6) by winning the #3 singles match.  Sophomore Walter Palmer (Wilmette, IL, New Trier)defeated Max Zlevor of Lawrence 6-4, 4-6, 10-7.

Knox played the Vikings tough in #1 and #2 doubles.  Palmer and sophomore  Karolis Ruzgas (Downers Grove, IL, Downers Grove North) took their #1 doubles opponents Zlevor and Jason Dunn to a tiebreaker before losing the match 9-8 (7-5).

Sophomore Jonathan Ng (Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong International School) and senior David Ham (Lakewood, WA, Shadow Ridge) also fought their way to a tiebreaker in their #2 doubles match against Cooper Smith and Jeremy Andereck.  The Vikings came away with a 9-8 (7-4) victory.

The Prairie Fire (5-12) responded by winning three of the six singles matches and two of the three doubles contests to down Ripon.

Palmer was 2-0 on the day at #3 singles after he cruised to victory against Ryan Slowinski 6-0, 6-1.  Ham was also a 6-0, 6-1 winner in his #4 singles match against Brian Schumacher while first-year Dustin Loch (Glen Ellyn, IL, Glenbard West) topped Tyler Hopewell by the same score in #5 singles.

Ng and Ham won 8-4 in #2 doubles against Slowinski and Schumaker.  Loch and first-year Pragyaditya Mukerjee (Kolkata, India, The Cambridge School) posted an 8-2 victory over Tyler Hopewell and Anders Goodwin in their #3 doubles match.

Knox plays a non-conference match at Eureka College on Friday at 3:00 p.m.

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