LA MIRADA, Calif. --- There's something about being at the Biola Tennis Center that helps galvanize Biola Men's Tennis against opponents they are well-matched against.

Head Coach David Goodman's team hosted the UC San Diego Tritons on Saturday, a team that was ranked three spots ahead of the Eagles at No. 5 in the West Region in the season-opening ITA poll. But the Eagles proved that ranking should probably be a bit closer when the next poll is released on February 19, as Biola pushed the Tritons to the wire before dropping the decision 4-3.

UC San Diego took the early lead with doubles wins on courts one and three. But the tension began to mount with the pair of Edwyn Ramos and Quentin Lau forced their set into a tiebreak that went to its 12th point before the Tritons squeaked out a win. 

Then singles is where play really started to turn for Goodman's group. Derek James roared out to a 6-0 victory in his first set and posted a very quick victory for Biola after his opponent retired. Alexei Prokopchuk followed up with his third singles victory of the year and dropped just three games in the second set to even the score again for Biola at 2-2. 

But the Tritons got another point with a straight-set win on court four and forced Biola to look to the final two matches that were going to a third set if they wanted to win in comeback fashion.

Logan Blair kept his end of the bargain, going up a break early in his third set at No. 2 singles to eventually win his third singles decision of the year, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. But Andres Meneses couldn't sustain the momentum he built with a 6-3 win in his second set, losing 6-1 in the third to clinch the win for UC San Diego.

The well-played match is just what the Eagles needed heading into their Cornerstone Cup matchup with nationally ranked Azusa Pacific. First serve at the Biola Tennis Center on Monday against APU is scheduled for 2 p.m.