CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. – The Cleveland State men's tennis team played its first Horizon League road contest of the season Saturday afternoon, falling at Northern Kentucky, 4-3.

"This was a tough match for us today, we missed out on the doubles point – which could have been the deciding factor – but we roared back in singles, and just came up one point short," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "This was a challenging Horizon League contest for us, and everybody played some good tennis and we definitely had chances, but we just weren't able to capitalize on all of the points that we needed. Now we will turn our focus to tomorrow's match against the Raiders and look to bounce back and fight for a victory."

Despite dropping the doubles point, Cleveland State's top team of Mirko Radosevic and Benjamin Slade picked up a 6-3 victory against the Norse, marking the tandems first Horizon League victory of the season.

Colton Buffington was able to even the score for the Vikings at the start of singles play then, as he was up 7-5, 4-1 before his opponent retired to improve to 2-1 against Horizon League opponents this season.

The Vikings were then able to gain a 2-1 advantage after picking up a win at No. 4 singles, with Slade earning a 6-4, 6-3 victory for his fourth win out of the last six matches.

The Norse responded with a pair of wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots to gain a 3-2 lead, but a Kevin Goth victory at No. 6 singles for the Vikings evened the team score once again at 3-3. After dropping the first set, Goth answered with back-to-back 6-4 set victories to claim the three-set win.

The final court in action was No. 5 singles, with William Malm dropping a hard fought 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 decision for the final point of the match.

Cleveland State will continue Horizon League play at Wright State tomorrow (Sunday, April 2) morning, with action slated to begin at 11:00 a.m. at Springboro High School.

Northern Kentucky 4, Cleveland State 3

Doubles
1. Radosevic/Slade (CSU) def. Isache/Clemens (NKU), 6-3
2. Clark/Virag (NKU) def. Buffington/Malm (CSU), 6-0
3. Araya/Niehaus (NKU) def. Mostardi/Goth (CSU), 7-5

Singles
1. Mate Virag (NKU) def. Nico Mostardi (CSU), 6-1, 7-6 (6)
2. Colton Buffington (CSU) def. Lukas Clemens (NKU), 7-5, 4-1, ret.
3. Javier Araya (NKU) def. Mirko Radosevic (CSU), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
4. Benjamin Slade (CSU) def. Court Clark (NKU), 6-4, 6-3
5. Andrew Niehaus (NKU) def. William Malm (CSU), 6-2, 5-7, 6-3
6. Kevin Goth (CSU) def. Adrian Isache (NKU), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4