NEW HAVEN, Conn. – 84 days after closing the fall season at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center, Fairfield University Men's Tennis returned to New Haven to open the spring campaign, falling to Yale by a 7-0 count on Sunday afternoon.

"Today was a good first effort," said Head Coach Jeff Bricker. "We were right there for the entire match, but just couldn't get over the hump to grab a win against a very talented Yale team. There was lot to like about today and also a lot to work on."

The Stags put up a fight throughout doubles play, but the Bulldogs came away with a clean sweep of the doubles rounds to take the point for the match. Keean Shah and Jonathan Olive-Blanco made up the opening day No. 1 tandem for Fairfield, keeping pace with Yale's top pairing of Cody Lin and Michael Sun before conceding, 7-5. The same score line played out at No. 3 doubles in another closely contested match featuring Sam Hodges and Griffin Schlesinger.

Hodges' resiliency carried over into singles play, and after falling 6-3 in the first set, won five straight games in the second frame to force a decisive third set, which went to Yale in a 10-8 tiebreak.

Elsewhere in singles play, Charlie Morkel took four games against the Bulldogs' Sun, who entered the weekend as the No. 69 player in the ITA National Rankings. Olive-Blanco fell just short of forcing a third set in his No. 2 singles bout with the Bulldogs' Theo Dean, before conceding 6-2, 7-6 (5). Shah battled with Yale's Shervin Dehmoubed at No. 4 singles, forcing a tiebreak in the opening frame before falling 7-6 (2), 6-4.

Fairfield returns to action Sunday, Feb. 6 with a doubleheader at Army West Point in New York. The Stags will first take on Bryant at 10:00 a.m. before squaring off against the host Black Knights at 4:00 p.m.