After dropping its first match of the year to Virginia Commonwealth University, the Georgetown men’s tennis team continued its rough start to the season with losses against Marquette and DePaul.

Georgetown (0-3, 0-2 Big East) opened its first of back-to-back Big East road matches against the Marquette Golden Eagles (2-1, 1-0 Big East) with a 5-2 loss. The match started with Georgetown dropping the first two doubles matches with senior Michael Chen and sophomore Charlie Sharton losing a tight 7-5 match, and senior Will Sharton and sophomore Mark Militzer losing 6–1. The third match ended in a no-contest, as the Golden Eagles had already secured the necessary two matches to win the doubles point.

In singles play, Georgetown received strong contributions from the bottom of the order, with freshman Andrew Rozanov and Militzer both winning close three-set matches. Rozanov played in the team’s five spot, while Militzer played in the six. Both players won deciding tiebreakers, with Rozanov winning 10-8 and Militzer winning 10-7.

The top four in the Hoyas’ order did not fare as well, dropping all of the remaining matches. Sophomore Luke Ross lost a strongly contested three-set match. After dropping the first set 1-6, Ross stormed back to win the 6-1 before getting blown out 1-6 in the third. Chen, Charlie Sharton and sophomore Connor Lee rounded out the remaining singles matches with straight set losses.

After the Hoyas’ disappointing loss to Marquette, Georgetown continued to struggle against yet another in-conference rival, DePaul (2-2, 1-0 Big East), losing every match except for one. The Hoyas got off to a weak start, dropping the first two doubles to concede the doubles point to the Blue Demons.

In singles play, Rozanov secured a win in the number five spot with a straight-set victory over DePaul’s Tamos Zador. Chen battled back for Georgetown after dropping the first set to win the second by a score of 6-4, but he lost a close third set 6-7. The rest of the Hoyas, sophomore Rohan Kamdar, Lee, Ross and Militzer, all lost straight set matches, without a single player grabbing more than four games in any set.

The lone bright spot for the Blue and Gray over the weekend was Rozanov, who managed to win both of his singles matches despite the struggles of the rest of the team. Although Rozanov lost his first singles match of the spring season against VCU, Rozanov’s strong start to the season is encouraging from a young player. Chen and Ross had competitive three-set matches, which they’ll look to turn into victories in the coming matches.

The Hoyas have shown weak form so far this season but will look to rebound, as their schedule gets easier in the coming matches. Georgetown will next play host to local rival George Washington on Feb. 8.