CLAREMONT, Calif.  A gathering of eight top-25 teams -- seven of which are No. 11 or higher – raised the stakes for Whitman's men's tennis team Tuesday at the 2017 Stag-Hen Invitational.

Whitman, ranked No. 8, faced the challenge of opening the morning against No. 2 Bowdoin (Maine) College but came up short, 7-2, against the Polar Bears (3-0). The loss sent the Blues into the consolation bracket of the tournament where they dropped an afternoon match to No. 10 Case Western Reserve (Ohio) University (11-3) by the slimmest of margins, 5-4.

Petar Jivkov and Gary Ho paced Whitman in singles action on the day, each winning both of their matches.

Jivkov won in straight sets each time at 2-singles, beating Bowdoin's Grant Urken, 6-4, and 6-4, in the morning and following up with a win against CW's Siddharth Rajupet, 2 and 2, in the afternoon.

At the No. 6 singles spot Ho went to a third-set tiebreaker in the Bowdoin match, rising above Patel Justin, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7), for Whitman's other point in the match. He also went to the tiebreak against Case Western, dropping the opening set, 7-6, to Anthony Kanam before rallying with 6-0, 6-4 second- and third-set wins.

Chase Friedman added a singles point against Case, rolling to a 6-0, 6-4 win at No 3.

The initial point of the match came in doubles action from Robert Carter and Jake Hoeger who captured an 8-6 win over Case's Phillip Gruber and James Fojtasek in the No. 2 slot.

Tuesday's results relegate Whitman(14-5)  into the 7th/8th-place match Wednesday at 10 a.m. against No. 24 Skidmore (N.Y.) College which on Tuesday was been beaten by No. 5 Washington (Mo.) University and No. 11 Wesleyan (Conn.) University.

Co-host and ninth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer Colleges will take on Wash-U Wednesday in the 3rd/4th-place match at 9 a.m., and Bowdoin will try to topple No. 6 and co-host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College for the Stag-Hen championship at 10 a.m.