Senior John Snider won a third set tiebreaker to break a 4-4 tie and give the Lake Forest College men's tennis team a 5-4 victory over Monmouth College at home on Sunday.
Snider won the first set at #3 singles 6-2 but lost by the same score in set two. The rest of the matches had ended by early in the third set, leaving Snider and his counterpart from Monmouth as the only players on the court. Snider fell behind 5-4 and 40-0 before fighting off three consecutive match points and eventually taking the point. After holding serve to take a 6-5 lead, Snider pulled ahead 40-15 before his opponent battled back to force the tiebreaker as daylight faded. Snider dropped the first three points in the tiebreaker before winning seven of the next eight to score the dramatic victory.
Snider was also victorious at #1 doubles with sophomore Dan Pivonka early in the contest. They prevailed 8-5 but the Fighting Scots had taken the other two doubles matches and led 2-1 going into singles play.
Monmouth extended its lead to 3-1 with a victory at #6 singles but a 6-1, 6-0 win by Forester sophomore Trevor Allen at #2 and a 6-0, 6-2 triumph by Pivonka at #1 tied the match at three. Junior Dragan Trivanovic came out on top of a hard-fought 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 decision at #4 to give the home team the lead but a Fighting Scot victory at #5 evened the score again at four and set up the dramatic finish.
Lake Forest completed the regular season 15-7 overall and 8-1 in Midwest Conference play. Monmouth fell to 10-9 overall and 7-2 in the league. The Foresters and Fighting Scots finished second and third in the standings, respectively, and will face off again Friday morning in the semifinals of the MWC Championship Tournament at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
