Box Score

GREENWOOD, Ind. - University of Indianapolis junior Alex Poe fought back from losing the first set to defeat Bellarmine's Alex Chanley in a third-set tiebreaker to clinch victory for the Greyhounds, 5-4, in a Great Lakes Valley Conference match at Center Grove High School on Friday afternoon.

Poe trailed 3-0 in the decisive third set before beginning to make his comeback against Chanley with back-to-back games, 3-2. Chanley won the next game and was on his way to taking a 5-2 lead when he doubled over behind the court and got sick.

Poe took advantage of his opponent's misfortune to even the set, 4-4, but Chanley continued to gut it out and took 5-4 and 6-5 leads until Poe was able to fight off cramping of his own to force a tiebreaker. Poe finally earned some separation to win the tiebreaker and take the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) and give UIndy (11-6, 2-1 GLVC) the win over the Knights (6-11, 0-3 GLVC).

It didn't appear that the match would last nearly four hours and come down to the final match on the court when the Greyhounds' blitzed the Knights in doubles, 3-0. Christian Nikou and Matt Smith started with an 8-2 win at No. 1 over Chanley and Anton Rabinov and Poe and Trevor Cox followed with an 8-3 win over Carlos Antonioli and Jacob Knagenhjelm at No. 2. The Greyhounds completed the sweep with Caleb Fellers and Pete Wilson winning 8-3 at No. 3 against Jimmy Fernandez and Michael Heinekamp.

The first sets in singles were highly competitive with a trio of tiebreakers, but Bellarmine won each one. Fernandez got the Knights on the board with a win at No. 4, but Nick Reinhart gave UIndy match point, 4-1, with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 3 over Antonioli.

The Knights won the next three matches with straight set wins at No. 6, No. 2 and No. 1 to set the stage for the dramatic ending in No. 5 singles.

The Greyhounds return to Center Grove tomorrow at 10 a.m. to play No. 36 Northern Kentucky in possibly the final meeting between the two programs with the Norse leaving NCAA Division II.