MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For the second consecutive match the No. 13 University of North Georgia (UNG) men's tennis team pulled out a thrilling 4-3 at the last minute, this time on the road at Auburn Montgomery (AUM).

UNG is now 2-1 on the year after consecutive 4-3 wins over Young Harris and AUM.

Friday's match against the Warhawks started on a rocky note as AUM snatched wins in the #1 and #3 doubles matches to secure the doubles point and take a 1-0 overall lead.

Freshman Maxence Petit cooled things down as he evened the overall match with a 6-3, 6-1 win in the #5 singles match.

Senior Robin Eldin then put the Nighthawks in front 2-1 as he took down Jami Savolainen 6-3, 6-4 in the #2 singles showdown for his first singles win of the season. 

With the overall match at 2-1 and two singles matches complete, the four remaining matches all remained in the balance as neither team grabbed a clear edge.

AUM grabbed a win in the #1 slot as Giuseppe Bonaiuti took down UNG junior Pedro Liborio 6-3, 6-1. 

At nearly the same moment, the Nighthawks also lost the #3 singles match as Raphael Pertusier defeated sophomore Marcos Castellanos 7-5, 6-3. 

Suddenly AUM was up 3-2 and just one win away from sealing the victory. At that same time, the #4 singles contest between UNG freshman Franco Rebora and AUM's Augustin Wallaert was in a heated second-set tiebreaker.

Rebora conquered Wallaert 6-3 in the first set but needed a tiebreaker in the second set to finish the job. He edged out his counterpart with a 7-6 (7-3 tiebreaker) victory to square the match and force the #6 singles match to be the deciding battle.

This was a familiar spot for UNG and, more importantly, for freshman Lleyton Beasley. 

Just 10 days ago, Beasley was deep in the thralls of a back-and-forth #6 match against Young Harris. He would claw to a victory and secure not only a win, but a comeback for the Nighthawks after they trailed 3-1 overall earlier in the day. The freshman was named the Peach Belt Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the remarkable performance.

On Friday, Beasley would need that same magic to help his team pick up a huge ranked win early in the season.

As the only match in competition, all eyes were on Beasley and Warhawk freshman Mark Nawa. 

Beasley barely squeezed out a 7-5 victory in the first set to put himself in the driver's seat. However, Nawa responded with a 7-5 win of his own in the second set.

Just as he was forced into a decisive third set 10 days ago, Beasley once more was forced to carry the weight of victory on his shoulders for one final set.

The two evenly matched opponents could not get away from each other. Neither gained a marked advantage in any of three sets played on Friday. 

After holding a 5-3 lead over Nawa, Beasley needed to win one game to end the match. Instead the AUM rookie rattled off three straight wins to take a 6-5 lead in the set. Suddenly Beasley's back was against the wall. 

The freshman remained calm as he dominated the next game. Beasley did not concede a single point to Nawa as he tied the set at 6-6 to force the tiebreaker.

In the tiebreaker Beasley fell behind early as Nawa won three consecutive points to take a 3-1 lead. The Nighthawk rookie then won back-to-back points to tie it at 3-3 before Nawa took the advantage again with another win to make it 4-3.

Then Beasley really went to work. The Athens, Ga. native rallied to win four straight points and grab the 7-4 victory in the tiebreaker. He won the match 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) and UNG celebrated a critical win on the road 4-3.

Now the Nighthawks look ahead to a Monday showdown away from home yet again. The team will travel to Newberry, S.C. on Feb. 17 for a 2 p.m. match against Newberry.