Lafayette tennis struggled to better its league foes last weekend at the Patriot League Kickoff Tournament in Bethlehem. Both the men and the women failed to top Lehigh, Colgate and Army.

Junior captain Brandon Goldstein said his team played much better despite the losses.

“This year we put up a much better fight than we did against these teams last year,” Goldstein said.

The score sheet backs it up. A season ago, Lafayette lost to Colgate 7-0. This year, it was 4-3.

“We had two matches that came down to third set tie-breakers,” Goldstein said. “Those matches could have gone either way.”

Sophomore Brian Stefanowicz was just two points away from going undefeated in singles. Stefanowicz beat Lehigh and Colgate and “was probably the best showing at the tournament” according to Goldstein.

For the women, senior Tori Almeida won singles matches against Colgate and Lehigh. Caroline Nixon ‘16 and Lauren Tracey ‘17 also registered wins against the Raiders and the Mountain Hawks in doubles.

The men open their season on Feb. 23 against Boston University while the women open their season March 1 against St. Peter’s.