The University of Rochester men's tennis defeated the No. 35-ranked Vassar College Brewers, 5-4, in a thrilling matchup that saw four singles matches go to a third set and the game come down to the final match on Sunday afternoon at the Goergen Athletic Center.
 
UR opened an early lead in doubles action, winning two of the three doubles matches. At No. 2 doubles, Krish Vennam and Ethan Samora earned the Yellowjackets' first point, defeating Fernando Bauermeister and Henry Zhang, 8-5.
 
Rahul Ravi and Kai Yuminaga added another win for UR at No. 1 doubles, winning 8-6 over Nolan Kubiak and Ethan Mantell, the 10th-ranked doubles team in the Northeast Region, before Pedro Cattaruzzi and Eugene Lee won the third doubles match via tiebreak, giving Vassar their first points of the afternoon.
 
Cattaruzzi and Lee topped Kavin Shukla and David Riccio at No. 3 doubles, 8-7, winning 7-4 on the tiebreak to send the two sides into singles play with Rochester leading, 2-1.
 
Things would only get more competitive from there, as each of the first four singles matches went to a decisive third set. Yuminaga and Lee went the distance at the second spot, with Yuminaga bouncing back from an opening set defeat to pick up UR's first point in singles play: 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.
 
At No. 3 singles, Shukla would make it 4-1 in favor of the Yellowjackets, winning in three over Bauermeister, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, again battling back from an opening-set defeat.
 
The 35th-ranked Brewers, though, wouldn't go away quietly, and Vassar took the next three singles matches to level the score at 4-all. Mantell topped Ravi in three at the four spot, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, while Wong bounced back from an early deficit to top Vennam at No. 1 singles: 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
 
Vassar's Zhang then tied the match at 4-4, picking up a two-set win over Riccio at six singles, 6-0, 6-2, setting up a winner-take-all match at No. 5 singles.
 
Kei Ogawa, having previously clinched a ranked win last season for UR, took the first set over Arnav Agostinho, 6-4 at the fifth spot, and then swept the second set, 6-0, to clinch the 5-4, upset win for UR.
 
Rochester moves to 6-1 with the win, picking up its fourth-straight victory, while the 35th-ranked Brewers fall to 6-4 with the loss.
 
Yuminaga was UR's lone double-winner, winning at the No. 1-doubles spot as well as the second singles spot.
 
UR will look to keep things rolling when they host Hobart on Thursday, April 4 at 4:00 p.m. inside the Goergen Athletic Center.