AZUSA, Calif. -- No. 18 Azusa Pacific entered the month of March by collecting its fourth win in a row, defeating PacWest opponent Biola 5-2 on Thursday afternoon at the Cougar Tennis Complex as the Cougars remained undefeated against Biola.

After decades of dominating Biola in men's tennis, Azusa Pacific has found a quality opponent in Biola since 2020 when the Cougars had to come back from match point down to win at Biola. Still, the Eagles have not yet earned a win over the Cougars and that remained the case on Thursday.

The Cougars' win in the rematch of last year's NCAA West Regional semifinal boosted their record to 6-2, while Biola drops to 3-3 on the season.

Azusa Pacific earned all of the first three singles points with straight-sets wins, which was enough to clinch the match after taking the doubles point. In doubles, the Cougars earned a pair of 6-4 wins with Leyton Bohren and Marko Nikoliuk at No. 1 doubles and Brody Bohren and Vili Bonev at No. 3 doubles.

The Cougars set a clear but narrow path to victory by winning the first set in three of the six singles matches. Elias Emilio Walter gave the Cougars their second point with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles. Miha Velicki was the next off the court with his 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles to make the score 3-0. Velicki now has a team-best 6-2 singles record this season.

Nikoliuk then completed the victory, clinching the match before Biola got on the board with his 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 2 singles. Nikoliuk now has a 5-3 record on the season with three of his wins coming at the No. 2 position.

Brody Bohren and Bonev both came back to win the second set after dropping the first. Brody came all the way back for a 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Alex Sedeno. Bonev eventually fell in a supertiebreaker to Isaac Cordova, 7-6, 2-6, 10-7.

The No. 1 singles match featured two All-PacWest athletes and top-20 players in the nation in Alexei Prokopchuk and Leyton Bohren. Prokopchuk narrowly took the first set in a tiebreaker and then got a break in the second set to win 7-6(6), 6-3. He now has a 3-4 record against Azusa Pacific with three of his losses coming against Jakob Schnaitter and one against Sam Sippel.

Azusa Pacific will next face Concordia on Friday on the road. The Golden Eagles are coming off a strong performance in the fall season and are picked fifth in the PacWest preseason poll. The first serve for that match is scheduled for 1 p.m. and the match will be played on Concordia's campus.