AZUSA, Calif.— Colorado Mesa University's Tyler Landen scored a hard-fought win over the nation's 12^th-ranked player in Leyton Bohren in the top flight while freshman Henry Scheck won at No. 6 singles as the Maverick men's tennis team put up a valiant fight before going down, 5-2 to the 18^th-ranked Azusa Pacific University Cougars on Saturday here at the Munson and Bavougian Tennis Complex.
 
Landen's victory, the most impressive of his career, came by a nip-and-tuck 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (10-12), 1-0 (10-4) margin over Bohren, ranked second in the ITA's NCAA Division II West Region.  Landen is ranked 14^th regionally and snapped a 4-match singles slide.
 
Scheck was also able to pull out his match by a 10-3 margin in the super tie-breaker after winning the opening set in a tiebreak, 7-3.  APU's Dylan Parsley won the second set, 6-2.
 
However, the Cougars, now 7-3 as a team, were more dominant in the other four singles matches, winning each in straight sets after winning at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles to build the early lead.
 
The No. 2 doubles match that featured Scheck and William Leschig was left unfinished at 5-5.
 
The Mavericks fell to 5-7 on the season with overall loss to the 2022 Pacific West Conference Champions and NCAA Division II Championship quarterfinalists.
 
The Maverick men are off next weekend before returning to the courts in California for four PacWest matches in as many days at Fresno Pacific University's Haak Tennis Complex.  That stretch begins on Mar. 18 against Holy Names and will also include match-ups with Hawai'i Hilo, CUI before taking on the hosts.