AZUSA, Calif. – The Cougars walked the tight rope but completed the mission. 

Match Results

Facing the defending NCAA Division III national champion, and currently top ranked, Amherst the Cougars recorded a hard fought 5-4 victory on Friday afternoon.

The doubles play started extremely well for Azusa Pacific as the tandem of Ben Eger and Pascal Engel rolled to an 8-0 victory at the No. 2 slot. The Jeffs won the second match off the court as the No. 1 doubles team of Michael Solimano and Aaron Revzin got up a service break early and rode that to an 8-6 win against Jan Meyer and Gary Yam.

At the critical third doubles match, Alan Leahy and Shepherd Newcomb won the tiebreaker against Russell Einbinder and Sean Rodriguez 7-2 to post a 9-8 triumph. 

Azusa Pacific won the first singles match off the court as Meyer cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 victory at the No. 1 spot. The Jeffs made the team score 3-3 as they won the next two singles matches. Solimano (6-3, 6-2) and Revzin (6-3, 6-3) notched straight set wins at the third and fourth singles positions respectively. 

Leahy put the Cougars within one win of claiming the team match with a 6-1, 7-6 win at the No. 5 slot. Amherst put all the pressure on Azusa Pacific as Einbinder won 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 at the sixth position against Tomas Aranguiz.

The clinching match came in a nip-and-tuck No. 2 singles contest between Eger and Andrew Yaraghi. After winning the first set 6-3, a resilient Yaraghi fought back for a 6-2 second set win. Down 6-5, Eger held serve to force the tiebreaker. Yaraghi had the first match point but a drop shot by Eger knotted the score. After switching sides Edger closed it out with two straight points. 

Azusa Pacific sets back into regional play with a Saturday match against Point Loma. Earlier this season the Cougars beat the Sea Lions in San Diego.