PALM DESERT, CA – The ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis team held off 12^th-ranked Bowdoin in a thrilling 5-4 match Wednesday afternoon. The Blue Jays improve to 7-1 while handing the Polar Bears (7-1) their first loss of the season.
 
Hopkins took the first point of the match when graduate students Mason Liu and Jonathan Zhang beat Jack Flores and Andrew Mendelson, 8-0, at third doubles. Bowdoin tied the match when Pieter Breuker and Ethan Bradley defeated graduate students Joe DeMarco and George Jiang at second. Juniors James and Thomas Yu then put the Blue Jays back on top with an 8-7 (6) win over Tristan Bradley and Reid Staples at first.
 
In a match-up of top-10 players at first singles, Bradley beat Thomas Yu, 6-4, 6-1 to tie the match at 2-2. Bradley then gave the Polar Bears their first lead with a 7-5, 6-2 win over DeMarco at fifth. Junior Daniel Ardila answered with a 6-3, 6-3 win at sixth over Flores to make it a 3-3 match.
 
Zhang put Hopkins back on top when he defeated Staples 6-5, 7-6 (4) at second. Mark Kneiss responded for Bowdoin and tied the match once again with a 7-6 (4), 6-1 win at fourth over James Yu. All eyes turned to third, where Liu and Breuker were battling to decide the winner. Breuker had taken the first set 6-4 and Liu answered with a 6-3 win in the second. Breuker then went up 5-3 in the third set, but Liu saved two match points and then went up 6-5. Breuker battled back to force a tiebreaker, where he took a 7-6 lead. Liu won three straight points to win the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7) and clinch the victory for Hopkins.
 
This is Hopkins' first win in three meetings versus Bowdoin. Hopkins is set to take on fourth-ranked Middlebury on Thursday at 10:00 am.