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David Garcia waiting at the net
Adam Washington
4
Winner Middlebury MIDDMT (5-0)
3
Biola University BU-MT (6-8)
Winner
Middlebury MIDDMT
(5-0)
4
Final
3
Biola University BU-MT
(6-8)

Match Recap: Men's Tennis | | Brandon Taylor, Assistant Sports Information Director

DIII Champ Barely Escapes

Biola Men’s Tennis played the defending NCAA DIII National Champions to a 3-3 tie before dropping No. 5 singles.

LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The Biola Eagles battled a second tough opponent in as many days on Saturday, hosting Middlebury College from New York after losing an away match to No. 21 Azusa Pacific on Friday.

The Eagles dropped the No. 1 and No. 2 contests to the defending NCAA DIII National Champions, but made it a match in singles with victories at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, all coming in three sets. Middlebury countered with straight-set wins on courts six and four to even the dual match at 3-3 and squeaked out the match with a back-and-forth 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 6-1 win at No. 5 over David Garcia.

"I thought we played really well today and had some chances to take the match," said Head Coach David Goodman. "Our number one through three guys are playing really well for us. We have never really been used to winning much in the top positions, so it's a welcome sign to know that our guys can play at such a high level."

In some ways, the doubles results were a microcosm for the match as a whole. Middlebury demonstrated that it deserved its current No. 2 ranking in NCAA DIII Men's Tennis by winning the top two flights, 6-3 and 6-4. But Garcia and Edwyn Ramos grinded at No. 3 and won in a tiebreak to show the Eagles wouldn't go down without a fight.

Ramos, Logan Blair and Derek James delivered on that motivation with three-set wins in their respective singles matches to put the Panthers on their heels. Ramos and James both figured out their respective opponents in close first sets that they lost. But the lessons learned helped them dominate the next two sets while dropping three games each in that span.

Ramos has now won each of his last two singles matches playing No. 1 at the Biola Tennis Center while James stays undefeated at the No. 3 position with an 8-0 record.

In the meantime, Blair navigated yet another challenging opponent in Andrew Xiao and came up big in the big moments. Blair earned a key break of serve in set one to take it 7-5 and then rallied from a 6-1 loss in the second set to turn the tide of the match around completely with a 6-3 win in the third set. It's Blair's first three-set win of the year and his sixth at the No. 2 position.

Unfortunately, the Eagles couldn't make the third-set magic happen for a fourth time in Garcia's fixture. The senior built momentum with a 7-3 win in the second-set tiebreaker but just couldn't carry it though the final set.

The Eagles have a lot more tennis coming next week and welcome a big PacWest opponent to the Biola Tennis Center on Monday. First serve with Hawaii Hilo is scheduled for 4 p.m.
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