NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The historic season for Houghton men's tennis came to an end Saturday as the Highlanders lost 5-0 to Carnegie Mellon in the Second Round of the NCAA National Tournament at the Ensworth School Tennis Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The Tartans, ranked as high as #15 during the season, swept the three doubles matches, 8-0, 8-1, 8-1, before closing the match with wins at fifth and sixth singles. The matches at first, second and third singles went unfinished with the Highlanders trailing in each.

"The guys came out trying to hit a really big ball. Carnegie-Mellon is an intimidating team to play and it got to us a little in the beginning," said Houghton Head Coach Tonya McGraner. "However after a bit they settled in and started playing some solid tennis. It's an expected scenario for a first time national level tournament, and I think today was a good realization that if we slow down and settle into long points with aggressive play and high margin for error, we can be competitive with some of the best teams out there. It just took us a while to figure that out today. But it certainly makes us excited for the trajectory of the program in the future. This is the first step of many progressing Houghton to be a competitor at the regional and national levels."

Houghton finished the campaign with a record of 10-4. They had won 10-straight matches after starting the season 0-3 and claimed their second-straight E8 regular season title. They earned the No. 1 seed in the E8 Tournament and advance to the NCAAs after defeating No. 2 Nazareth, 5-4, in the E8 title match. This was the program's first appearance beyond the conference tournament.