AZUSA, Calif. -- In the final home match of their illustrious careers at Azusa Pacific, seniors Gary Yam and Ben Eger won two dramatic three-set matches in singles to lift the Cougars to a 5-4 win over NCAA Division III's No. 1 Claremont Mudd Scripps on Saturday afternoon.

Match Results

Eger and Yam were both locked in tight third sets, when the Stags won their third singles match in a row to take a 4-3 lead. Needing wins in both singles matches to extend the team's winning streak to eight matches, the seniors both delivered with Eger winning at No. 2, while Yam won at No.4.

"I didn't realize that when Yam and I were the only ones on court that we both had to win to clinch it," Eger said, "but I knew I could get the win and that Yam was going to come back," Eger said. "It couldn't have been a better way to get the win than two have the seniors get the two clinching wins on Senior Day."

The Cougars (18-3) took two of three doubles matches against Claremont Mudd Scripps (21-2), meaning they needed to win three singles matches, and the Cougars took the first set in each of the top three courts, while the Stags took the early advantage on the bottom three.

No. 1 Jan Meyer was the first to finish, getting a 6-3, 6-3 victory to give the Cougars a 3-1 advantage overall. However, CMS forced a deciding set at No. 2 and 3 singles, while Yam was the only Cougar on the bottom half to get into a third set.

The Stags completed the comeback at No. 3 singles with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win for Nikolas Marino over Pascal Engel. Also, Max Macey beat Tomas Aranguiz 7-6, 7-5 at No. 6 singles, and Daniel Morkovine ended Alan Leahy's seven-match win streak with a 6-1, 7-6 decision at No. 5 singles.

In his third set, Eger got broken in his opening service game, but broke back to even the score at 2-2. He broke again and got a 5-3 lead and eventually won the match 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to even the score at 4-4. With the win, Eger tied assistant coach Jochem Hoefnagels on the Cougars' list of career singles matches won at 74.

"It's exciting to catch up to Jochem, since he was my teammate for three years," Eger said. "Now, I have a chance to keep improving on that number, and I'm excited for the team to keep going with the conference tournament. We are going to get right back to work on Monday to be ready for that."

Yam then took on a familiar position, playing a third set with all other matches done, and once again, the match was on the line. From behind in the third set 2-3, Yam won three games in a row to take a 5-3 lead and eventually served it out for a 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory. The win was the 10th time in his career that he clinched a 5-4 decision for the Cougars.

"Things weren't going my way in the beginning of the match," Yam said. "I told myself that I just needed to stop making excuses, and just find a way to win, since it was Senior Day. I told myself to just give 120% on every point no matter how tired I am. I noticed that it started to make my opponent nervous, which gave me belief that I could come back."

In doubles, Yam and Meyer had a five-match winning streak snapped by an 8-4 loss with the other two doubles matches going the way of Azusa Pacific. Eger and Engel improved to a team-best record of 15-6 in doubles with an 8-6 triumph at No. 2 doubles.

At No. 3 doubles, sophomore duo of Leahy and Shepherd Newcomb got a crucial 9-7 win that gave the Cougars the advantage going into singles. They had been on a three-match losing streak, but snapped it just in time to lead the Cougars to the regular season-finale victory.

The win represented the second time Azusa Pacific had come from behind to defeat the No. 1 team in NCAA Division III by a score of 5-4. The Cougars also beat Amherst 5-4 when it was the top ranked team with Eger getting the clinching win after saving a match point.

The loss for CMS was the team's only loss all season to a team outside of NCAA Division I. The Stags came into the match 21-1 with its only loss to University of Pennsilvania. The Cougars will go on to play in Surprise, Ariz. for the Pacific West Conference tournament on April 15-18.