EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ men's tennis team went to the brink of knocking off F&M in a windy home opener on Saturday, but the Diplomats pulled out a third-set super tiebreak among three consecutive singles wins to steal a come-from-behind 4-3 victory.
 
TCNJ won tiebreak sets at both number one and number three doubles to grab the doubles point. Harrison Maitland-Carter and Asa Wong edged Zac Ashtiani and Gonzalo Gentou, 8-6, in the breaker while Nathan Chan and Olufela Fieulleteau downed Samuel Donnelly and Campbell Gervais, 7-4, around a 6-4 win for Brett Schuster and Alberto Thomas at No. 2 to give the Lions a sweep.
 
The Lions would have won this match under the scoring system of previous years, but doubles counting as just one point kept the Diplomats more than alive.
 
Maitland-Carter posted a 6-4, 6-4 win over Luke Brodsky at number one singles, and Aidan Twamley's impressive 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 rally past Carl Kamdin at number four staked TCNJ to a 3-1 lead.
 
The Diplomats, however, took the three remaining courts to steal the win. After a straight-set decision at number five, Ashtiani edged Thomas 7-6 (2), 3-6, 10-5 at number two to even the match.
 
That left it to number six singles, where Jack Gelman defeated Fieulleteau to seal it.
 
The Lions host Hobart (Saturday) and RIT (Sunday) next weekend.