DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle (0-1) men's tennis team battled hard in their season opener, but after five hours and 25 minutes of play, the Eagles were unable to notch a victory over former conference foe Keiser (1-0), falling to the Seahawks, 5-4.
 
The Eagles dropped the first point of the day on the second doubles court where Julian Turosienski and Romai Ugarte topped Juan Ortiz Couder and Andres Donayre 8-4.
 
Trailing 4-1, the ERAU top-flight duo of Carlos Becke and Deepak Vishavkarma fought back to best Nicolas Guershanik and Clement Raymond 9-7, leveling the score at 1-1.
 
Playing at the third spot, Rodolfo Arreygue and Luke de Caires jumped out to a 5-2 lead over Shaquille Taylor and Francesco Oliva, but the Keiser duo rallied to take the match 9-8 (7-3) and give the Seahawks a 2-1 advantage heading into singles.
 
Arthur Bonnaud extended the Seahawk lead to 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Arreygue on court four and Clement Raymond made it 4-1 after pulling out a three-setter (6-1, 2-6, 6-3) against Vishavkarma.
 
At No. 1 singles, Ortiz Couder dropped the first set 6-4, but fought back to take the second 6-2. In the third, the freshman was down 5-2 to Turosienski, but again showed his resiliency, rattling off six straight games to take the set 7-5.
 
Next off the court was Becke, who also scored a three-set victory by besting Ugarte 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, and newcomer Andres Donayre dispatched Taylor 7-5, 6-2 to tie the score at 4-4.
 
The deciding match was on court six between de Caires and Oliva, and that contest also went to three sets. De Caires took the first 6-3, but Oliva came back to win the second and third frames 6-3 each to clinch the win for Keiser.
 
The Eagles will play their first road game of the season on Feb. 7 when they travel to St. Augustine to face Flagler. The match is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.