Columbia, KY - It was a battle between two of the top team's in all of the NAIA Tuesday afternoon between UC and the Blue Raiders. Cumberlands travelled to Columbia for the midweek matchup with them being unable to steal one on the road, falling by a final of 5-2.

Doubles play began with a win as Martin Barbier and Eric Banoub continued their strong play in the #1 spot for the Cumberlands. The #19 duo in the NAIA matched up against Steven Espinoza and Anatoliy Voloshyn with the pair of Patriots grabbing the win by a final count of 6-2. The rest of doubles competition belonged to the Blue Raiders with them winning the second and third contests to take the first point, winning each canto 6-4.

Barbier had a tough opponent to go up against to begin singles play with him having to compete against Lindsey Wilson's Aleksa Ciric. Martin and Ciric both are ranked in the top 35 in the NAIA per ITA so this one promised to be a battle. Aleksa ended up controlling the contest and taking home the 6-2, 6-2 win to give the Blue Raiders a 2-0 lead.

Lindsey Wilson added to their advantage at #2 singles as Jan Silhavy was able to defeat UC's Mattis Le Montagner 6-2, 6-1. The Blue Raiders then clinched the win at #4 with Nicolas Torrealba taking down Luis Montull 6-3, 6-1 before making it a 5-0 lead at the #5 spot. 

The Patriots did claim two wins in singles play with Martin Muller at #3 getting the first win and  Hung-Ju Wu garnering the second to close out the match. Muller's was one that was well earned as he fought through three stanzas for the win. He won the first set 6-4  before dropping the second 6-2 to Joppe van Malderen ,forcing a third canto. Martin had to fight his way to the win and was able to do so, winning out by a final of 7-6 to get the Patriots on the board. Wu opened up his match with a 6-2 win in the opening set and found himself ahead 2-0 before his counterpart retired to end the contest.

The Patriots are now 11-4 on the season with a 2-1 mark in conference play. They'll take some time off and try to regroup before their next match, which is slated for Wednesday, March 23rd. UC will be back inside their friendly confines for that one as they are set to host Austin Peay with things getting started at 1:00 p.m.

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