Box Score
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Despite trailing 3-1 and sitting just one point shy of defeat Saturday, the Samford University men's tennis team charged back behind a trio of true freshmen to knock off the Lipscomb Bison, 4-3, in a thrilling non-conference showdown held at the Samford Tennis Center.
 
"Today was an absolute team effort," said Samford head coach Rahim Esmail. "That was one of the better college matches that I've seen in a while. I give lots of credit to Lipscomb on the way they competed today. We were down 3-1 with all of our freshmen left and they came up huge. They showed great composure in the situation that they were in."
 
Lipscomb (5-3) jumped out to its 3-1 advantage by winning the doubles point and then earning singles victories on courts No. 1 and No. 2.
 
Samford (2-4) tallied its first victory of the evening at court No. 3 as Trey Carter outlasted the Bison's Alex Pavel, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. With the win, Carter improved to 1-4 in singles play this season and kept the Bulldogs' hopes alive.
 
"Trey did a great job of coming back in his match, making a few adjustments which really made the difference," Esmail said.
 
Playing indoors at the state-of-the-art Samford Tennis Center, the Bulldogs would need three-consecutive victories from true freshmen Justin Ghavami, Eduardo Lourido Sanchez and Jake Faundez on the bottom three courts to rally for the improbable come-from-behind triumph.
 
On court No. 4, Samford's Ghavami knocked off Lipscomb's Phillipe Courteau, 7-6, 6-2, while Lourido Sanchez tallied a marathon victory over the Bison's Daniel Hernandez, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, on court No. 5.
 
With the overall score of the match equalized at 3-3, all eyes shifted to the No. 6 singles contest where Samford's Faundez was dueling with Lipscomb's John Tougher.
 
Faundez, the Bulldogs' dynamic true freshman from Perth, Australia, cruised to a 6-2 victory in the first set and then held off Tougher in the decision stanza, 7-6, to clinch the comeback win for Samford.
 
"Jake was able to clinch it today and I am extremely proud of him," said Esmail. "I'm also extremely proud of the rest of the team, but especially the way Jake was able to handle the adversity and continue to stick to what he does well. We need to be better in the doubles. We started very poorly on courts two and three and that hurt us. I am pleased that we were able to gut it out against a good Lipscomb team and we're looking forward to another challenge tomorrow at home versus nationally-ranked Kentucky."
 
With his match-clinching victory on court No. 6, Samford's Faundez improved to 3-2 in singles play this season.
 
The Bulldogs tallied their second straight home win and will continue their homestand Sunday against the nationally-ranked Kentucky Wildcats at 10 a.m. (CST).

Box Score
Samford Stats