St. Louis, Mo. - The Wheaton men's tennis team had its season ended on Thursday afternoon in a tightly contested 5-4 loss to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Rose-Hulman (20-8) advances to the tournament's second round against Washington University on Friday afternoon.

Wheaton (17-8) concludes the 2017 season as the CCIW Champions, winning the program's league-best 25th conference championship. This year's NCAA Tournament appearance was Wheaton's fifth selection to the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Tournament.

Rose-Hulman won two of the three doubles matches to open today's action. Wheaton's doubles victory came on an 8-5 victory at No. 2 doubles for the team of Dane Paulsen and Jeremiah Yi. The Rose-Hulman No. 1 doubles team of Georges Adam and Brandon Benedict defeated the Wheaton pair of Justin Ancona and Matt Steiner 8-4. RHIT's Joe Kendall and Austin Perry of Rose-Hulman topped Andrew Bristol and Josh Cheng at No. 3 doubles.

The Fightin' Engineers extended the lead to 4-1 with a pair of early wins in singles play. RHIT's Andrew Schiffman topped Andrew Torok 6-2, 6-3 at No.  6 singles. Benedict defeated Paulsen 6-4, 6-1 at No. 2 singles to increase the Rose-Hulman lead to 4-1, one match win away from an RHIT victory.

Josh Cheng sparked a Wheaton rally when he clinched a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 5 singles against Perry. Wheaton trimmed the RHIT lead to 4-3 when Jeremiah Yi rallied to earn a 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory at No. 4 singles against Andre Adam.

Senior Justin Ancona tied the matchup at 4-4 with a win at No. 1 singles. Ancona rallied to defeat Adam 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

The matchup came down to the match at No. 3 singles between Cam Metzger of RHIT and Wheaton senior Matt Steiner. Metzger won the first set 6-2 and Steiner rallied with a 6-3 victory in the second set. Metzger emerged with the 6-2 victory in the decisive fourth set to earn the win for the entire RHIT squad.

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ROSE-HULMAN 5, WHEATON COLLEGE 4

Singles competition
1. Justin Ancona (WHEATON) def. Georges Adam (RHIT-M) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
2. Brandon Benedict (RHIT-M) def. Dane Paulsen (WHEATON) 6-4, 6-1
3. Cam Metzger (RHIT-M) def. Matt Steiner (WHEATON) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2
4. Jeremiah Yi (WHEATON) def. Andre Adam (RHIT-M) 2-6, 6-0, 6-1
5. Josh Cheng (WHEATON) def. Austin Perry (RHIT-M) 6-4, 6-2
6. Andrew Schiffman (RHIT-M) def. Andrew Torok (WHEATON) 6-2, 6-3

Doubles competition
1. Georges Adam/Brandon Benedict (RHIT-M) def. Justin Ancona/Matt Steiner (WHEATON) 8-4
2. Dane Paulsen, Dane/Jeremiah Yi (WHEATON) def. Andre Adam/Cam Metzger (RHIT-M) 8-5
3. Joe Kendall/Austin Perry (RHIT-M) def. Andrew Bristol/Josh Cheng (WHEATON) 8-5

Match Notes
Rose-Hulman 20-8
Wheaton (Ill.) 17-8
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (6,2,5,4,1,3)
2017 NCAA Division III First Round