ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's tennis team defeated Purdue Northwest 4-3 for its first win of the spring season on Sunday afternoon at the UMSL Tennis Courts.

The Tritons even their record at 3-3 while the Pride drop to 8-2.

UMSL won the opening point of the contest by winning two of the three doubles matches. The number one team of Raphael Kerndl and Juan Vigil defeated Samuel Dickson and Joao Martins 6-1 while the second team of Joshua Mackey and Jose Mayorga knocked off Alex Lozano and Adhirit Awal 6-4. PNW won the final doubles contest as Daniel Sroka and Daniel Chicano handed Marcos Navas and Tanin Ramnath a 6-1 loss.

In singles play the Pride won the first two singles matches to take a 2-1 lead. Dickson defeated Mayorga 6-2, 6-3 and Lozano beat Vigil 6-3, 6-1. The Tritons won the next two matches as Kerndl handed Chicano a 6-1, 6-3 defeat and Mackey knocked off Martins 6-2, 6-4.

PNW tied the match at three as Awal beat Ramnath 6-3, 6-1 in the fifth singles contest. It all came down to the final match with Navas defeating Alexander Patane 6-2, 6-4 to clinch the victory for UMSL.

The Tritons return to the courts next Saturday (March 2) hosting Rockhurst at 11 a.m. at the UMSL Tennis Courts.