LEBANON, N.J. – The Union College men's tennis team nearly pulled off a victory over Division I Lafayette College on Sunday afternoon, but a pair of supertiebreakers did not go Union's way in a close 4-3 defeat at the Courtside Racquet Club.
 
Lafayette (1-5) earned the first point of the day by sweeping the three doubles matches, but Union (1-3) provided some stiff competition when the match turned to singles play, with four of the six singles contests needing supertiebreakers to decide a winner.
 
In the first match to finish, junior Dimitris Binopoulos battled back from a set down to force a supertiebreaker, but came up a few points short to Arman Ganchi in a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4) defeat at first singles. Classmate Khai Ton earned Union's first point at the third flight, winning the first set in a tiebreaker and then emerging victorious in a supertiebreaker, 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 1-0 (10-5) over Josh Wolfe.
 
Sophomore Ben Jacobs evened the match at two with an incredible effort at second singles against Jake Magnusson. After dropping the first set by a 6-4 score, he saved three straight match points down 4-5 in the second set before coming back for a 7-6 (7-4) win and eventually came away with a 10-4 win in the supertiebreak.
 
Senior Aidan O'Brien then gave the visitors their first lead of the day with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Nick McKenzie at fourth singles.

After a loss by senior Thomas McGuire at sixth singles, sophomore Ian Schunk put up a big fight in his fifth-singles match against Nash Lovallo. He came back from a set down to win the second and force a supertiebreaker, in which he saved four match points before eventually coming up just short in a 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (17-15) marathon.
 
Union will return to the courts next Sunday with a noon match at Trinity (Conn.) College.