HATTIESBURG, Miss. — The William Carey Men's Tennis team opened up their season with a thrilling 4-3 victory against Xavier at the WCU Tennis Courts.

Xavier clinched the doubles point with wins on courts #1 and #2. In singles, Carey took the first singles point with Noah RockStroh (6-0, 6-0) winning at #5 singles but XULA took a 3-2 lead with wins at #4 and #6 singles.

A win at #2 singles by Thomas Drapeau would make it 3-2 and Ibrokhimjon Urinov would tie things up with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 victory at #1 singles.

The match would come down to #3 singles between Anton Magnusson and Mathieu Strauss.  Strauss would take first set 6-1.  However, Magnusson would rally from down 3-1, to take the set 6-4.  Magnusson then clinched the win for WCU with a 7-5 victory in the deciding third set.

In the women's match, Xavier secured the doubles point with wins on Courts 1 and 3.  Jordan Ortega Mendez won the lone Carey point with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win in number one singles.

Both squads are back in action as they head to Alexandria, La. for the LSU-Alexandria Invite February 24-26.  The men will take on Our Lady of The Lake at 7:30 am with the women taking on LSU-Alexandria at 1:30 pm.