Box Score DAHLONEGA – The No. 13 University of North Georgia (UNG) men's tennis team pulled out a thrilling 4-3 win over nearby rival Young Harris in its home opener at the UNG Tennis Complex at Yahoola Creek Tuesday evening.

The Nighthawks entered Tuesday's match looking to rebound from a close 4-3 loss at Lincoln Memorial to begin the year.

The team got off to a good start in the doubles matches with wins in the #1 and #2 contests. 

Senior Pedro Liborio and freshman Franco Rebora paired up in the #1 spot to take down YH's Noah Pawirodirjo and Caleb McCurry 6-3.

UNG then clinched the doubles point moments later behind a 6-3 win from freshman Juan Cruz Blanco and senior Robin Eldin in the #2 slot. 

Momentum shifted in favor of the Mountain Lions in singles play. 

In the #5 match, YH's Greyson Williams defeated Blanco 6-2, 6-0 to tie that overall match at 1-1. The Mountain Lions then took the lead a few minutes later when Mason Harmon defeated freshman Maxence Petit in the #4 singles match to make it 2-1. 

At this time, a number of other matches were still tight in their early stages. The next 90 minutes would drastically shift who would be in the driver's seat to close out the victory.

UNG fell behind even further when McCurry defeated Eldin 6-2, 6-4 in the #2 singles match. 

With the overall match at 3-1 in favor of YH, the Nighthawks would need to win each of the remaining three matches to pull off the comeback.

The climb back started in the #1 singles match with ITA men's singles No. 14 Liborio. Going against a tough opponent in Pawirodirjo, Liborio had his work cut out for him. The two exchanged a number of heart-rate increasing points. On an uncharacteristically warm February afternoon, Liborio was dripping in sweat from the intense match.

The junior transfer eventually pulled out a thrilling 6-4, 6-3 victory to keep UNG's hopes alive. 

Just a few courts over, Rebora was in the middle of his own intense battle with Samuel Guzon in the #3 singles contest. 

Rebora had taken the first set 6-4, but Guzon rallied to steal the second set 7-5. It went to a decisive tiebreaker in which the Nighthawks needed a win to stay in the match and force the #6 singles match to be the decider. Rebora dominated the tiebreaker set, winning 6-0 over Guzon to tie the match overall at 3-3.

In the decisive #6 singles match, UNG freshman Lleyton Beasley faced off against YH freshman Nills Vercruyssen. This was Beasley's second singles match of his career and Vercruyssen's first. 

The two newcomers dueled in a heated battle that saw Vercruyssen come out on top in the first set 7-5. However, Beasley answered with a thrilling 7-5 victory of his own to force a tiebreaker. In the third set, Beasley followed in the footsteps of Rebora and simply dominated. He came away with a 6-0 victory to close the match at 4-3 and clinch the comeback for the Nighthawks. 

UNG trailed 3-1 against the Mountain Lions and was on the verge of dropping its second straight match to start the season. Instead the Nighthawks rallied valiantly to win each of the next three singles matches with Liborio, Rebora and Beasley to pull out the come from behind victory.

Now UNG will prepare for another home match on Saturday, Feb. 9 against Carson-Newman. First serve from the UNG Tennis Complex takes place at 12:30 p.m.