ORLANDO, Fla. — The Ave Maria Men's Tennis team got their first win of the season Wednesday evening as they took down the Rensselaer Polytechnic Engineers 4-3. It was a back and forth match all night between Ave Maria and the No. 20 team in NCAA Division III, but the Gyrenes outlasted RPI to get their first win at UTSA.

The Gyrenes and Engineers played the singles round first and split the six matches at three apiece.

RPI took the first match in the third pairing, but the Gyrenes quickly took the lead with wins in the fifth and sixth pairings.

Andreu Soliva won the fifth pairing in a quick two-set sweep 6-2, 6-0. Combined with his two-set sweep against Judson earlier in the morning, the sophomore won four straight sets on the day.

Julien Mourad took the sixth pairing also in two sets, winning 6-3, 6-2. It was Mourad's first singles' win of the spring season.

RPI tied the match up with a win in the second pairing, but Ave Maria regained the lead after Pedro Garcia won the fourth pairing. Garcia, like Soliva and Mourad before him, swept his match, winning 6-3, 6-4. Like Soliva, Garcia also won four straight sets on Wednesday.

Ave Maria had a chance to clinch the match with one singles match remaining, but Engineers won the top pairing to tie it up. The match then went into the doubles round to determine a winner.

RPI got the early advantage winning the third pairing in the double round 6-0. Ave Maria battled back though and did not lose hope in the final two sets.

Joao Felipe Almeida and Garcia took the second pairing 6-4 to even up the round. Just a few minutes later, Danil Mischanin and Soliva won the top pairing 6-4, clinching the match for the Gyrenes and securing the first win of the season.

With the win, Ave Maria improves to 1-3 on the year.

The Gyrenes are back in action Thursday, March 5, as they close out their stay at the UTSA campus in Orlando with a match against the NCAA Division II Michigan Tech Huskies out of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. It will be the first ever meeting between the two schools on the tennis court.