CENTER VALLEY, Pa. (March 27) - The Saint Vincent men's tennis team battled through third sets and freezing temperatures on the road to claim a 5-4 non-conference win over DeSales.

SVC fell behind early, dropping third doubles by a score of 8-2. The Bearcats drew even when David Lynn and Mauricio Sanchez won 8-4 at the top flight. The final blow in doubles was struck by Jon Oskin and Josh Boland, who came away victorious, 8-7(4), at second doubles to give Saint Vincent a 2-1 lead heading into singles play.

Matthew Sadusky bounced back in singles with a straight sets win, 6-3, 6-3, at fourth singles to extend the lead to 3-1 for SVC. Jack Citrone was next off the court with a hard fought victory at fifth singles, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. DeSales then reeled off wins at first, second, and sixth singles to tie the match again, 4-4. The deciding point came down to Sanchez, playing in the three hole. After racing out to a 6-3 first set win he dropped a tough second set, 2-6. In the decisive third set Sanchez and his opponent traded service breaks and holds until a tiebreaker at 6-6. Sanchez pulled away in the breaker, 7-5, and secured the Bearcat win, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5).

With the win Saint Vincent improves to 6-3 on the year. The Bearcats will return to action on Thursday, March 31, at 4 p.m., when they face off against Geneva in a Presidents' Athletic Conference matchup on the SVC Court.