Franklin, Ind. - The Franklin College men's tennis team lost an 8-1 home match to Greenville College to open the 2016 spring opener on Friday at the Mickel-Hoover Tennis Complex.

The doubles tandem of junior Ethan Caldwell (Terre Haute, Ind./Terre Haute North) and sophomore Alex Hammer (Greenwood, Ind./Greenwood) dropped only one game in winning on the No. 1 doubles court.

Caldwell lost a hard-fought three-set match at No. 2 singles. After winning the opening 7-5, he lost a deciding third-set tiebreaker 10-4 to Greenville's Jonathan Urshan. Hammer lost by identical 6-3 set scores at the No. 1 singles position.

Sophomore Kyle Sauley (Madison, Ind./Madison) and freshman Dean Elrod (Milan, Ind./Milan) lost straight-set matches at No. 3 and 4 singles courts.

Franklin returns to action on Saturday, March 12, at 2:30 p.m. when it begins Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana.