LEBANON, Tenn. – The McKendree University men's tennis team remained undefeated on the season following its hard-fought 4-3 victory here Monday afternoon over Cumberland University at the Tommy Gray Memorial Courts on the Cumberland campus.
 
With the victory, the Bearcats improve to 6-0 on the season, while Cumberland fell to 4-6 on the year.
 
Cumberland got off to a strong start in Monday's match against the Bearcats as they won two of the three doubles matches to earn the doubles point and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
In doubles, Cumberland won 7-5 at the No. 2 spot and 6-4 at the No. 3 spot, before junior Leonardo Frederico (Tujucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/UniCesumar) and graduate student Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Beligium/Tulsa) prevented a sweep by the Phoenix with its 6-3 win at the No. 1 spot over Jackson Vaughan and Hughes N'Goma.
 
Frederico and Kamdem won their fifth straight match and improved to 7-1 on the season in doubles.
 
The Bearcats entered singles action trailing 1-0 in the match, but the Bearcats would rally to win four of the six singles matches to post the match win.
 
Frederico would pick up a win at No. 1 singles over N'Goma as he moved to 7-3 on the season with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
 
Daniel Wessels would give Cumberland a 2-1 lead in the match with his win at the No. 2 spot over Kamdem, 6-2, 4-6, 6-0.
 
Sophomore Subash Paramasivan (Chennai, India/National Institute of Open Schooling) helped the Bearcats tie the match at 2-2 following his win at the No. 3 spot over Vaughan, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
 
Sophomore Julappagari Anurag Reddy (Dubai, UAE/CBSE School Nationals) would give the Bearcats a 3-2 lead in the match following his three-set win at No. 4 singles over Dan Slapnik Trost. Reddy lost the first set, 6-3, before winning the next two sets by identical 6-1 scores.
 
Sacha Colomban would help the Phoenix retie match at 3-all following his straight set (6-4, 6-4) win at the No. 5 spot over junior Lorenzo del Biondo (Pescora, Italy/Abraham Baldwin).
 
Colomban's win set a winner-take-all match at the No. 6 singles spot between sophomore Nanase Ebisu (Osaka, Japan/Hawai'i Pacific) and Fernando Flores. Much like the singles matches at No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4, the No. 6 match came down to a third-set. Ebisu won the first set, 7-5, before Flores won 7-5 in the second set to set-up a third and final set to determine the winner. In the third set, Ebisu would ultimately prevail in a back-and-forth set, 6-3 to give the Bearcats the match win.
 
The Bearcats will conclude its two-match trip to Tennessee with a 1 p.m. match on Tuesday, March 15 in Clarksville, Tenn., against NCAA Division I foe, Austin Peay State.