Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – It took four and a half hours for the Whittier College Men's Tennis team to pull off the 5-4 victory Wednesday afternoon as they took down No. 42 Haverford College at the Richard Ettinger Tennis Courts.

Despite falling behind 2-1 after doubles, the Purple & Gold were able to take 4-of-6 singles matches, which included the clinching victory at No. 3 from Elmer Van Butselaar (Veenendaal, Netherlands) who fought back from a 3-0 deficit in the third to win 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in dramatic fashion.

The No. 2 doubles team of Maxwell Koszowski (Denver, CO) and Troy Chavez (Temecula, Calif.) was the first team to fall going down 8-5 but they were picked up by the No. 3 team of Van Butselaar and Hunter Kettering (Pleasanton, Calif.) who leveled the match at 1-1 following an 8-6 win over Arul and Sweesey.

The battle took place at No. 1 with Andrew You (Arcadia, Calif.) and Thomas Koszowski (Denver, CO) who led with a break at 5-2 but were unable to hold it as they fell 9-8 (1) giving Haverford a 2-1 advantage.

In singles, the battles continued with a trio of three setters taking place.  Whittier's Chris Palacio (El Centro, Calif.) evened the match with a quick dismissal of Prinz at No. 5 winning 6-1, 6-3 and was followed by M. Koszowski at No. 6 who held a break in each set 7-5, 7-5 to put WC on top 3-2. 

Kettering kept the momentum going in the Poets favor as he took care of Phelas at No. 4 (6-3, 7-6 (6)) needing a break and a tiebreaker to give Whittier their fourth point.  Leading 4-2, Whittier saw the advantage slip away as both You and T. Koszowski would fall in three setters.  You going down 6-3, 3-6, 1-6 at No. 1 and T. Koszowski 6-3, 4-6, 2-6 at No. 2.  This leveled the match at 4-4 forcing Van Butselaar to create fireworks, which he did, clinching the second straight victory for the Purple & Gold. 

Whittier will conduct a light hit today before hosting Carnegie Mellon tomorrow, Friday, March 10 beginning at 3:00pm.