ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The McKendree University men's tennis team made history here Friday evening as the nationally 42nd-ranked Bearcats picked up the first ever win in program history against Washington University in St. Louis as they earned a hard-fought 5-4 victory over the NCAA Division III No. 4 ranked Bears at the Tao Tennis Center on the WashU campus.
 
With the victory, McKendree extended its win streak to three straight matches, all against nationally ranked opponents, and moved its season record to 10-1 on the season, while WashU falls to 9-5 overall.
 
The win was the first ever for McKendree over WashU in men's tennis as the Bears entered the match with an 11-0 record against the Bearcats. In fact, the last time the two teams played on Sept. 12, 2015, WashU earned an 8-1 win on its home court.
 
Friday's match was played with Division III scoring rules as all nine matches count (three doubles and six singles) to determine the match winner. The first team to win five matches is the winner.
 
WashU opened the match by winning two of the three doubles matches as each doubles match was hotly contested.
 
The Bears picked up an 8-6 win at No. 2 doubles for its first point and then collected an 8-5 win at No. 3 doubles to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
McKendree, though, would prevent a WashU sweep in doubles as the Bearcats No. 1 doubles team of junior Leonardo Frederico (Tujucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/UniCesumar) and graduate student Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Beligium/Tulsa), who are ranked 36th in Division II doubles, would pick up an 8-7 (7-5) win over WashU's team of Abhi Ramieddy and Daniel Li to earn its first point of the match. In the tiebreaker, Frederico and Kamdem trailed 5-2, before winning five straight points to earn their 10th straight victory and improve to 12-1 on the season in doubles.
 
Following doubles play, which took a little over an hour to play, the two teams turned their attention to singles as three of the six matches went to three sets and it also featured four tiebreakers.
 
WashU would take a 3-1 lead in the match following a win at No. 6 singles by James Shaheen over Bearcats senior Vishnu Prasad (Chennai, India/National Institute of Open Schooling). Shaheen won the match, 7-5, 7-5.
 
The Bearcats would win its second point of the match thanks to a win at No. 5 singles by freshman David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa de Lima) as Mantilla defeated John Fakouri, 6-4, 6-2. With the win, Mantilla improved to 6-4 on the season and 4-1 at No. 5 singles.
 
McKendree would tie the match 3-all following a win at No. 4 singles by Julappagari Anurag Reddy (Dubai, UAE/CBSE School Nationals. Reddy would pick up a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 win over Gauray Singh to extend his win streak to seven straight and improve his singles record to 10-2 on the year.
 
Li would give WashU a 4-3 lead in the match following his win in three sets at No. 2 singles against Kamdem, who is ranked 58th in Division II in singles. Li would open with a 6-0 win in the first set, before Kamdem rallied to post a 7-6 (7-4) win in the second set to force a third set. In the third set, Li would ultimately prevail 6-3 in the third set to earn the win and drop Kamdem's record to 10-3 on the season.
 
The Bearcats, though, tied the match back up at 4-all following Frederico's impressive three set win at No. 1 singles over Ramieddy. Frederico, who improved to 11-4 on the season and is ranked 74th nationally in Division II singles, fell 6-4 in the first set, before rallying to win 6-4 in the second set and forcing a third and final set. In the third set, the two players battled and battled, and the outcome would be decided on a tiebreaker by Frederico, 7-6 (7-3) in the third set.
 
Frederico's win set-up a winner-take-all match at No. 3 singles between sophomore Subash Paramasivan (Chennai, India/Saraswathi Kendra) and Luke Smith. And much like the singles matches at both No. 1 and No. 2, the match at No. 3 would be decided in three sets. Paramasivan, who is now 7-4 on the season in singles, would win the first set, 6-4, before falling 7-6 (9-7) in the second set to set-up a third and final set to decide the match winner. In the third set, Paramasivan would pick up a 6-4 win to clinch the match victory for the Bearcats.
 
The Bearcats will return to action in less than 24 hours as they open Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a 2 p.m. match on Saturday, April 2 against Illinois-Springfield at the on-campus courts on the McKendree campus.