The Creighton men’s tennis team fell just short of a victory against South Dakota State on Sunday.

After losing the doubles point, the Bluejays tried to make a run for it, but closed with a 4-3 loss to the Jackrabbits.

“We’ve won a whole bunch of close ones, the guys all year have been competing really well,” head coach Tom Lilly said “We’re going to have a few close ones coming up too. Just disappointed we were a little bit short.”

Starting off the match with doubles, Creighton won one out of the three matches, allowing South Dakota State to snatch the doubles point.

The No. 1 doubles ended with a win for South Dakota State. Jackrabbits Andrea Boglic and Parker Lawley defeated senior Elliott Baker and sophomore Jake Norman 8-3.

Creighton rallied when the No. 3 junior duo Quinn Dippel and Nick Thompson defeated Mateus Moreira and Lovro Curcija 8-3.

“When we started out both teams held a couple of times, we got to two all and then I held for 3-2, we broke for 4-2, Quinn held for 5-2 then we managed to get one more break in there towards the end,” Thompson said. “It was 8-3 but a lot of the games were pretty close, we had to pull out a lot of deuce points.”

The outcome of who received the doubles point depended on the winner of No. 2 doubles. The teams gathered around on both sides of the middle court cheering on their teams.

After a close match, South Dakota State claimed the doubles point.

South Dakota State’s Gary Notkin and Sefano Blatt defeated freshman Alex Koca and junior August Nysted 8-6.

The teams were fortunate enough to have sunny weather, but the wind became a factor.

“We knew the weather was going to be a factor [and] I told the guys it’s probably going to be the toughest team mentally that wins today,” Lilly said.

There were 20-30 mph gusts of winds throughout the afternoon, affecting the tennis ball various ways.

“We played well right away, we were both serving well, returning well, Nick was hitting some good lobs so that was good against the wind,” Dippel said.

Creighton started off strong in single matches, defeating South Dakota State in No. 6 and No. 4 positions.

Nysted defeated Blatt 6-0, 7-6, giving the Bluejays a point to tie it up 1-1.

The Bluejays snatched a 2-1 lead after Baker won No. 4 singles 6-2, 7-5.

The Jackrabbits quickly responded after No. 3 Curcija defeated Koca 6-4, 6-2.

Tied up at 2-2, Creighton fought to stay in it.

South Dakota State’s Boglic defeated Norman in a three set match 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 to put the Jackrabbits up 3-2.

As the courts were clearing off, the No. 2 and No. 5 single matches continued battling for the last two points.

Sophomore Aaron Chalstrom gained the Bluejays a crucial point by defeating Notkin 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

The teams tied up overall 3-3, gathered around court two to see who could pull off the last singles point to claim the victory.

No. 2 singles Lawley and Dippel have been matched up before, always playing a close match.

The last appearance the two had against each other Dippel was able to come out on top with a win.

Lawley and Dippel put in a long, hard fought battle at Koch Tennis Court Sunday afternoon.

After going back and forth, Lawley defeated Dippel in a three-set match 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 to claim the 4-3 victory for South Dakota State.

“We lost at the top three positions today, which is tough but you look at the other half of it as we were a deeper team,” Lilly said. “We won at four, five and six. When that happens it’s basically the doubles point that makes a difference, we just didn’t quite have it in doubles today.”

The Bluejays return to the courts this weekend in Indianapolis against Butler on Friday and Xavier on Saturday.

“We still need to work on our doubles just to get that a bit stronger, I think last year at this time we were just a little bit stronger at doubles than we are right now. We are just going to have to improve because both of those teams are tough,” Lilly said.

Creighton returns to Indianapolis the following week to compete in the Big East Championships April 23-26.