THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran men's tennis team found themselves in yet another close match on Wednesday night, and for the second straight week they pulled out a thrilling 5-4 victory, this time over Brandeis (Mass.) at Poulson Tennis Center.

The Kingsmen fell behind early on after Brandeis took a 2-1 lead in the doubles portion of the match. Moises Cardenas and Fergus Scott fell 8-5 to the pair of Danny Lubarsky and Brian Granoff at No. 1 while Ian Slater and Jesse Knight lost 8-2 to Michael Arguello and Jeff Cherkin at No. 2. Gio Valdez and Oliver Thornton came up with a critical 8-6 victory at No. 3 to give the Kingsmen their first point of the day.

During singles competition, Cardenas overcame his loss in doubles with a quick 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 1 and Slater followed suit with a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 2. Thornton picked up his first career singles win with a 6-2, 6-1 downing of Eric Miller at No. 5, although Brandeis would notch wins at court three and six to even up the score at 4-4.

All eyes shifted their attention to court No. 4 where Valdez was in a back-and-forth battle with Danny Lubarsky with the match on the line. After dropping the first game, Valdez rallied back to win the second and force a tiebreaker. Lubarsky jumped out to an early 4-3 lead but with the Kingsmen cheering him on, Valdez slammed home four of the final five points and won 7-5 to clinch the victory for CLU.

Cal Lutheran (3-1) will begin Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) action this Saturday, Feb. 21 against Pomona-Pitzer at 10:00 a.m. at Poulson Tennis Center.

Box Score: CLU 5, BDU 4
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