INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The No.5-seeded McKendree University men's tennis pulled off a 4-3 victory against No.4-seeded Drury University on Monday morning in the NCAA DII Midwest Regional hosted by the University of Indianapolis. The win marked the McKendree program's first-ever over Drury. The Bearcats move on to the second round on May 14 at 10:00 a.m. (CT). 

Drury claimed the doubles point of the match as they secured the No.1 and No.2 doubles contests. Fifth-year senior Lorenzo del Biondo and sixth-year senior Vishnu Prasad took a 6-3 victory in the No.3 match, though it would not count towards the team score.  

The No.2 match was the first to finish in singles play as Drury's Slyvain Garin-Michaud would claim a 6-1, 6-1 win over junior Seb Holden. However, McKendree would earn its first point for the day with the No.6 match as del Biondo defeated Mark Drozdetskii 6-0, 6-0. Sophomore Bendix Schröder fell to Marlon Wilken in the No.3 match 4-6, 4-6 which gave the Panthers a 3-1 advantage.  

From this point, the Bearcats had to win the three remaining singles matches to advance in the tournament.  

Prasad took a 6-2, 6-4 victory in the No.4 match over Jesus Gonzalez, thus beginning the Bearcats' final surge with a score of 3-2. Fifth-year senior Leonardo Schmitz Frederico took down Yaroslav Sharyy in the No.1 match 6-3, 6-4 to even the team scores at 3-3. 

The McKendree victory came down to the third set of the No.5 singles match as sophomore Luka Kalenic dropped the first set 2-6 against Matthieu Gachon but came back with 6-3, 6-2 wins in the second and third sets to earn McKendree's fourth and final point. 

The Bearcats advance to the round of 32 for the first time since 2022 when they defeated Tiffin in the round of 64.  

Up next, McKendree faces No.1-seeded University of Indianapolis on Tuesday, May 14 at 10:00 a.m. central time.