DAHLONEGA – With clutch play late in the match, the No. 9 University of North Georgia men's tennis team sealed another ranked win Monday with a 5-2 victory over No. 17 Mississippi College at the UNG Tennis Complex at Yahoola Creek. 

The Nighthawks won the doubles point with victories in the #1 and #2 doubles matches. 

After UNG and the Choctaws split the #2 and #3 doubles matches, it came down to the #1 match to decide which team was going to win the early point.

Senior Joaquin Benoit and junior Robin Eldin came together with an exciting 7-6 (7-5 tiebreaker) victory to collect the point for the Nighthawks.

Benoit, who has been excellent of late for UNG with wins in six of his last nine doubles and singles matches (the three non-wins were unfinished contests), shined again on Monday in the #1 singles spot. 

He earned the first singles point of the day to make it 2-0 UNG by making quick work of ITA No. 2 men's singles player Alex Benichou Blanchard in a 6-3, 6-3 win. The victory is Benoit's 10th singles win this season and second over a ranked opponent. As the No. 31 singles player in the country himself, Benoit is 2-1 with an unfinished match against ranked singles opponents this year. His two wins have come against the No. 11 and No. 3 players in the country.

After Benoit's win, Mississippi College's Joe Jarvis got the Choctaws on the board with a 6-2, 6-2 win in the #4 singles match.

Nighthawk senior Giulio Sassi followed with a 7-6 (8-6 tiebreaker), 6-0 win in the #2 spot to make it 3-1 UNG. The Nighthawks needed just one more singles win to clinch the match.

However, Eldin dropped the #3 singles match in a three set thriller 4-6, 7-6 (9-7 tiebreaker), 3-6 to make it 3-2 in the match overall.

UNG would need a win from either freshman Marcos Castellanos or sophomore Eliseo Alcalde in the #5 or #6 singles matches to lock up the win. 

The decision hung in the balance as both Castellanos and Alcalde went to a decisive third set after splitting the first two.

It was then Alcalde, with a 7-6 (7-3 tiebreaker) win in the third set, who secured the victory for UNG. Castellanos also won his third set, 6-4, to move the final score to 5-2.

With their third ranked victory of the season, the Nighthawks moved to 11-5 overall this year and have a chance for another ranked win in their next contest.