Ullah and Shetty dropped a 6-4, 6-2 decision to Ouachita Baptist University's Christian Wassmer and Tim Oosterhaus, the 15th-seeded pair in the 128-team tournament.
"It was a good, close match," Whitman coach John Witter said. "A lot of the games were close. A couple more points and we could have been in a tie-breaker in the second set."
Still recovering from an apparent case of food poisoning, Ullah played the match at about 85 percent of his normal energy level, Witter said. "Haroon felt much better after we got him rehydrated and some food to stay down. He had gained most of his strength back by the time the match was played, although he still felt a little weak."
Ullah, a 1995 graduate of Richland, Wash., High School, had to forfeit his first-round singles match Monday morning after becoming ill during the night.
"You can never know, but if Haroon had been healthy there might have been a different outcome with the doubles match," Witter said. At the same time, he added, "Wassmer and Oosterhaus are pretty tough players. They are older, a little more experienced and a little bit better. Wassmer is a Boris Becker look-alike. Just a big ol' moose."
Shetty, who came to Whitman from Bombay, India, lost his singles match Monday 6-4, 6-2 to Christopher Johansson, a Swede who also plays for Ouachita Baptist. At the end of play Tuesday, Ouachita Baptist, which is located in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, was in fourth place in the tournament team standings.
Conditions for Shetty's singles match were very windy, Witter said. "The guy Akshay played was very consistent," he added. "He didn't make any mistakes, and he just kept the ball coming back over the net. That's the way you have to play in the wind."
"This was a great learning experience for our guys," Witter said. "They learned a lot about what they need to do to come back here and have a chance to win."
According to tournament medical personnel, food poisoning was "more than likely" the cause of Ullah's illness Monday, Witter said. Ullah began vomiting at about 1 a.m. Monday, and his condition did not stabilize for about nine hours. Witter said Ullah apparently ate some tainted food at a Sunday evening banquet for the players and coaches.
Ullah and Shetty qualified for the national championships by winning the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges (NCIC) doubles championships in late April.