The Georgetown men’s tennis team (0-6) was unable to pick up its first win of the season yesterday, falling, 5-2, to Division III powerhouse Emory.

“Emory is the No. 4 Division III team and they could very well end up No. 1 in the end,” Head Coach Gordie Ernst said. “They are a really strong team.”

Ernst expected more out of freshmen Casey Distaso and Alex Friedlich in Thursday’s match. Despite building a 4-3 lead in the first set, Distaso had a bad spell of double faults and ended up losing his No. 5 singles match, 6-4, 6-2. Friedlich was defeated by a similar score of 6-3, 6-2 at the No. 6 spot.

“The No. 5 and No. 6 losses were surprising. We thought [the freshmen] should have matched up better. We thought [Friedlich] would be stronger in the lineup,” Ernst said. “The freshmen have to learn to get up for every match.”

The disappointing performances aside, Ernst was impressed with sophomore Charlie Caris. In the No. 2 singles spot, Caris crushed Emory junior Chris Goodwin — who is ranked in the national top 20 — by a score of 6-3, 6-2.

The victory meant more than just knocking off the recently named University Athletic Association men’s tennis player of the week. Chris Goodwin is also the younger brother of Georgetown Assistant Coach Mike Goodwin.

Ernst knew he could use the familial relationship to his advantage.

“This was a match pitting my Assistant Coach Mike Goodwin against his brother Chris Goodwin,” Ernst said. “Mike did a great job teaching Charlie on how to exploit all of his brother’s weaknesses, and it worked.”

Although Caris came away with a notable victory, it was not enough to help the team win its first match of the season.

“The problem is that different players play well in different matches,” Ernst said. “But collectively the team needs to play well.”

However, Ernst is still optimistic that his players are capable of jump-starting their season.

“Both singles and doubles are improving,” Ernst said. “That is the take-away silver lining. I feel confident that it will come together.”

Tomorrow’s match at Bucknell may be the time to finally get things rolling.

“Bucknell seems to me to be a good team that is similar in play to Lehigh, who we lost to 4-3 earlier in the season,” Ernst said. “This could be our breakthrough match.”