LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Sometimes in sports, experience is more important than talent.

That proved to be the case for sophomore Pascal Engel, who clinched a team victory for the first time in his career, giving Azusa Pacific a 5-4 season-opening win over No. 18 UC San Diego on Friday afternoon.

Match Results

"This win was so important for the team, so I am thrilled that I was able to come through for them," Engel said, "but for me personally this was also very important, because I had struggled in these situations last year as a freshman. It was a tough fight, so it was good to win the fight."

After Engel split the first two sets with Mark Meyer at No. 5 singles, the pair moved to Court No. 1, where the sophomore raced out to a 3-0 lead. However, that lead was quickly erased as Meyer came back to even the deciding set at 3-3. At the same time, Gary Yam  finished his match at No. 4 singles with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 win, making Engel's contest the decider for the dual-match.

"He was playing more aggressive than me to even up the score," Engel said. "I knew I had to take back control of the match by stepping in and taking the ball earlier. I knew I had to be the more aggressive player"

That paid off for the reigning PacWest Newcomer of the year, who reeled off three games in a row for his 18th career singles victory at Azusa Pacific.

"I think Pascal grew a lot on the court tonight, getting that win under the lights with everyone watching" head coach Mark Bohren  said. "He showed a lot of maturity mentally in that match, because he wasn't playing his best tennis, but he battled through the tough conditions and found a way to win. Him having a year of experience under his belt was really apparent in that third set."

The Cougars defeated UC San Diego by the same score a year ago, but this time Azusa Pacific had to overcome a 2-1 deficit after doubles, getting it's only win from Engel and Ben Eger  at No. 2 doubles, 8-5. 

At No. 1 doubles, Jan Meyer  and Yam had break leads multiple times, but each time, the Tritons fought back. Eventually, Meyer was serving to for the Cougars to stay in the match at 7-6, when Rajeev Herekar hit some brilliant returns in the deuce court, which led to the break of serve that sealed the set for the Tritons.

Meyer quickly got that one back with a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing at No. 1 singles to even the overall score at 2-2 before a few of the other matches had even finished the first set.

None of the five remaining singles matches were nearly as straight forward. In his anticipated return to action in dual matches following a red-shirt last year, Eger gave the Cougars their third win of the day in a tightly-contested match at No. 2 singles, 7-5, 7-5. The win was the 60th of his career becoming the 11th Cougar to reach the feat since 2002. He now has a nine-match winning streak dating back to 2013.

After trading breaks early in the opening set, Eger led 6-5. He got to 30-all on Eric Tseng's serve, when he had a look at two second serves and converted both of them into points to claim the first set. In the second set, he broke Tseng again when he was serving to stay in the match, avoiding the tiebreak and wrapping up the narrow victory in two sets.

At No. 6 singles, Tomas Aranguiz  fought back to win his second set and force a decider. However, after receiving a visit from the trainer, he never could never get going in the third set, falling to Alexandre Miaule, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, which evened the score at 3-3 with all three remaining matches in a deciding set.

UC San Diego then took a 4-3 lead with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win from Horea Porutiu over Alan Leahy  at No. 3 singles.  In need of two wins, Yam provided the first for the Cougars. The senior came back after dropping the first set 5-7 to Herekar to win the second and third sets both 6-2, setting the stage for Engel's clinching victory.

Azusa Pacific has a short turn around, playing at No.  45 Point Loma on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. less than 15 hours after the conclusion of the win over UC San Diego. The Cougars' home-opening match will be next Saturday against former Golden State Athletic Conference opponent Vanguard.