EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ men's tennis team pushed No. 23 Haverford to the precipice of defeat but was unable to finish the job in an epic 4-3 thriller decided by the thinnest of margins.
 
The Lions (5-4) were up 3-1 on a Fords team that jumped up nine spots and into the top-25 in Wednesday's fresh batch of ITA team rankings, but the visitors from the Main Line managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Haverford won in three sets at third and sixth singles, overcoming three match points in the latter before eking past the hosts.
 
DOUBLES

• TCNJ served notice of its upset intentions by taking the doubles point, getting a 6-3 win from Brett Schuster and Alberto Thomas at No. 2 singles to kick off the match
• The Fords (8-2) won at third doubles to set up a rubber match at No. 1, and Harrison Maitland-Carter and Asa Wong delivered. TCNJ's top pairing broke serve to force a tiebreaker, ultimately claiming a 9-7 victory in the breaker on their third set point to hand the blue and gold a big 1-0 lead

SINGLES

• Thomas continued his big day with a resounding 6-1, 6-4 victory over James McKenzie at No. 2 singles, giving the Lions a 2-0 advantage
• Haverford got on the board with a win at No. 1 singles, only for Aidan Twamley to put TCNJ ahead 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Niki Lavu at No. 4
• Needing just one of the three remaining courts, TCNJ looked to be in good shape when Schuster took the first set from Owen Kilmer at number three. But Kilmer rallied, pulling out a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory to keep the Fords alive
• Justin Minerva toughed out a second-set tiebreaker for a 6-0, 7-6 (4) win against Nathan Chan at No. 5, leaving the last match on the court as the decider
• Olufela Fieulleteau also went up a set, 6-4, but Chait Krishna recovered to grab the second set, 6-3. Fieulleteau was up a break three times in the decisive third set, including at 5-4, when he had three match points, only for Krishna to stave those off and break serve for 5-5. Krishna broke again with Fieulleteau serving at 5-6, clinching a 4-3 triumph for Haverford

NOTES

• Thomas surpassed 75 career wins with his double
• Schuster notched his 70^th career win
• Maitland-Carter now has 51 career doubles victories, putting him just outside the top-20 in program history
• Four of the last six meetings with Haverford have been decided by one court

UP NEXT

• The men's tennis team heads to Drew on Saturday