PALM DESERT, Calif. – Kicking off their southern California road trip in dramatic fashion, the George Fox University Bruins rallied from behind to win the last two singles matches and defeat the Sewanee University of the South Tigers 5-4 in a non-conference men's tennis match Saturday afternoon here at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort tennis courts.

George Fox started fast, taking two of the three doubles matches.  Andrew Milton and Preston Mann drubbed Grant Hopkins and Eric Roddy 8-2 at No. 3, followed by Peter Brown and Chris Lilley topping Levi Joy and Connor Winkler 8-4 at No.2.  The Tigers took the No. 1 doubles as Rand Jackson and Sean Laughlin downed Shawn Aldrich and Justin McClain 8-5.

The Tigers took the first two singles matches to go up 3-2, with Roddy defeating Mann 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4 and Jackson besting McClain 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1.  Facing a deficit for the first time in the match, the Bruins dug in for what turned out to be bruising dog-fight, Milton delivering a relentless counter-punching attack at No. 4 to take down Joy 6-1, 6-1 to even the match 3-3.

At the same time, Lilley, Aldrich and Brown, each of them down a set, began valiant comeback tries.  Unfortunately, Aldrich fell in a second set tiebreaker to Laughlin 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) that put the Tigers up 4-3 with two matches still to be finished.

With their backs against the wall, Lilley and Brown refused to lose. After losing the first set 7-5 at No. 6, Brown took the second 6-1, forcing a deciding third set, where his veteran experience proved too much for Hopkins. Brown took the third set 6-4, lifting the Bruins into a 4-4 deadlock.

The final spotlight shifted to No. 2, where Lilley and Winkler were engaged in a barnburner. Lilley dropped the first set 2-6 but took the second 6-3, forcing a third set to decide the outcome of the overall team match. The two exchanged multiple service holds, bringing the third set to 3-3.  With the sun setting, the match was forced to move into a short intermission as the players moved to a nearby lighted stadium court, where the Bruins would finally seal the victory. Riding a wave of support from his teammates, Lilley played like a man on a mission, breaking his opponent's serve to go up 4-3 and never looking back to win the third set and the match for the Bruins 6-3.

After the match, Bruin player Ben Fullhart summed it up best when he said, "This team is special; when the match got tight, we laid it all out there, and the hard work we've put in all year manifested itself in our perseverance today."

Head coach Neal Ninteman echoed his praise, saying, "Our guys overcame so much today, traveling here early in the morning, but they really banded together; buckled down and proved how good they are.  We beat a very good Sewanee team that had just come off a win at Occidental, one of the tougher teams in the West Region, so this was a terrific win for our team and our program.”

NEXT: George Fox (7-3), ranked No. 11 in the NCAA Division III West Region, continues its California trip Monday against Biola University, also at Palm Desert, at 3:00 p.m. ... Sewanee (4-2) plays Sunday at 3:00 p.m. against Carnegie Mellon University in a neutral-site game at Claremont, Calif.