GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A furious comeback effort by the Calvin men's tennis team came up just short as the Knights fell 5-4 to the visiting Trine Thunder Saturday afternoon at the Strikwerda Tennis Courts.

Calvin (13-3 overall, 5-1 MIAA) was pushed back on its heels early as it dropped all three doubles points with the Thunder winning 8-5 at No. 1 doubles, 8-2 at No. 2 doubles and 8-4 at No. 3 doubles.

Point by point, the Knights then put together a determined comeback bid.

Sophomore Ryan Broek (Hudsonville, Mich./Unity Christian HS) got Calvin its first singles point with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles. Freshman Felipe Sartori (Cotia, Brazil Colégio Giusto Zonzini) was next, winning 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Trine picked up a straight sets win at No. 6 singles to lead 4-2 but sophomore Corwin Kim (Livonia, Mich. Stevenson) was a 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 winner at No. 3 singles, bringing the Knights to within 4-3, leaving two matches left on the courts.

Freshman Maurquis Willingham (Indianapolis, Ind. North Central) tied the match 4-4 with a dramatic 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 win at No. 1 singles.

The match came down to the No. 5 singles match between senior Harrison Sindelaar (Westfield, Ind./Westfield HS) of Calvin and Caleb Morris of Trine. Morris took set one 6-3 but Sindelaar pulled out a 7-6 set two win including a 7-2 tiebreaker win. In the third set, Morris trailed 4-1 and later fought off two match points to lead 6-5. Sindelaar struck back to make it 6-6 and force a deciding tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Sindelaar took the early 3-0 lead but Morris fought back to take the lead at 4-3 and never trailed again. Sindelaar fought off two match points of his own, trailing 6-4 in the tiebreaker and tied the breaker at six, seven and eight before Morris pulled out the last two points to win the tiebreaker 10-8 and seal the match win.

Trine (14-3 overall, 6-0 MIAA) moves into sole possession of first place in the MIAA standings with the win. The Thunder travel to Kalamazoo next Tuesday while Calvin hosts Alma.

COACHES COMMENT: "A great comeback effort but a tough loss as well," said Calvin head tennis coach John Ross. "Credit to our guys for fighting back but dropping all three doubles points was a tough hill to climb and credit Trine for putting us on our heels right away. They are a very talented team. Hopefully we can get another opportunity to play them again in a few weeks in the conference tournament."

NEXT UP: Calvin will host Alma on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the regular season finale for the Knights.