ELON, N.C. – After falling behind 4-1 in his third set at No. 3 singles Thursday, sophomore Oskar Antinheimo mounted a memorable comeback to deliver what turned out to be the decisive point for the Elon University men's tennis team in a 4-3 victory over Gardner-Webb at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. 

BOX SCORE (PDF)
 
Antinheimo saved a match point with an incredible cross-court backhand pass on a deuce point while down 5-6 in the third. The shot took the match into a winner-take-all tiebreak, where Antinheimo won the final four points to seal an epic victory and secure a dramatic win for the maroon and gold. 
 
"He's a competitor," head coach Michael Leonard said about Antinheimo after the win. "He's one of those guys you want on the court when it matters. He's got a huge heart and he's not afraid of the moment." 
 
The victory extends Elon's winning streak to four as the Phoenix is now 4-3 on the season. The Runnin' Bulldogs fall to 8-2 with the loss. 
 

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THE RUNDOWN

• Elon won all three matches to secure a competitive doubles point. 
• Playing the No. 3 spot, Oskar Antinheimo and Jack Curtis rolled to their fourth straight win together with a 6-1 result. The duo leads the team this season with five doubles victories and has not lost more than three games in any of those contests. 
• Reigning CAA Player of the Week Juan Sengariz and Ben Zipay clinched the doubles point by winning 7-4 in a tiebreak on Court 2. The win is the tandem's first since they won at the No. 3 spot against then No. 25 North Carolina on Feb. 8. 
• Daniel Martin and Dylan Heap extended their winning streak to four at No. 1 doubles with a tiebreak win of their own. The duo won 7-3 in the breaker to complete the doubles sweep for the Phoenix. 
• This was Elon's fourth straight match converting the doubles point. In its four-match homestand, the Phoenix is 9-1 in completed doubles contests. 
• Veljko Krstic made quick work of Gardner-Webb's Alex Lepine on Court 2, as he rolled to a 6-2, 6-4 victory to move Elon ahead 2-0. The sophomore is 3-0 this season playing the No. 2 spot. 
• The Runnin' Bulldogs responded with a win at the No. 1 spot to trim Elon's lead to 2-1. 
• After dropping his opening set at the No. 5 position, Jack Curtis rallied to defeat Chrisjan Van Wyk 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-0. It is the freshman's second victory this season from a set down and his second in a final set. He has won his last four singles matches and his six singles victories are tied with Antinheimo for the most on the team.
• Gardner-Webb pulled back within 3-2 when Zipay was forced to retire down 2-1 in the third set on Court 6. Zipay had a match point while leading 5-4 in the second. 
• With Elon needing a point from either Antinheimo or Sengariz to clinch the victory, both players were forced into a third set after winning their opening frames.
• On Court 3, Antinheimo won the opening set 6-3 before dropping the second 6-4 against Gardner-Webb's Numa Lemieux Monette, sending the match to a third. Lemieux Monette defeated Antinheimo in a third last season playing the No. 4 spot in Elon's loss to the Runnin' Bulldogs in Boiling Springs. 
• Antinheimo fell behind 4-1 in the final set but battled back with three straight games to tie the score at 4-4. After Lemieux-Monette held serve to go up 5-4, Antinheimo responded in kind to even the set at 5-5. Needing another hold after Lemieux-Monette made it 6-5 in his favor, Antinheimo found himself at deuce, needing the next point to send the set to a tiebreak. 
• Lemieux-Monette dictated the deuce point, but Antinheimo saved the match with an incredible winner on a cross-court backhand pass to stay alive. In the tiebreak, Antinheimo fell behind 2-0 early but leveled the score at 3-3 entering the changeover. 
• Antinheimo won the next four points after the changeover to deliver the clinching point for the Phoenix. It was his sixth singles win of the season and the second of his career in a final-set tiebreak.
• In the last match to finish, Sengariz also fell behind early in his third set, as he trailed 5-2 when Antinheimo entered his tiebreak. However, the junior worked his way back to 5-5 before falling 7-5. 
• The win is Elon's first by a 4-3 score this season and its first by that score since defeating Dartmouth on March 21, 2023. 
• This is the second time in 12 meetings Elon has beaten Gardner-Webb by a 4-3 score, with the other coming on Jan. 27, 2011, in Boiling Springs. 
• Elon is now 4-0 at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center this season. 

 
UP NEXT
Elon will play a pair of weekend matches. The Phoenix closes out its five-match homestand Saturday against Hampton at 11 a.m. before travelling to Raleigh on Sunday to face No. 17 North Carolina State.
 
RESULTS
Singles
1. Eduardo Dias (Gardner-Webb) def. Daniel Martin (Elon) 6-4, 6-3
2. Veljko Krstic (Elon) def. Alex Lepine (Gardner-Webb) 6-2, 6-4
3. Oskar Antinheimo (Elon) def. Numa Lemieux-Monette (Gardner-Webb) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3)
4. Kim Niethammer (Gardner-Webb) def. Juan Sengariz (Elon) 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-5
5. Jack Curtis (Elon) def. Chrisjan Van Wyck (Gardner-Webb) 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-0
6. Jurie Terblanche (Gardner-Webb) def. Ben Zipay (Elon) 3-6, 7-5, 2-1, retired
 
Doubles
1. Daniel Martin/Dylan Heap (Elon) def. Eduardo Dias/Chrisjan Van Wyck (Gardner-Webb) 7-6 (3)
2. Juan Sengariz/Ben Zipay (Elon) def. Jurie Terblanche/Numa Lemieux-Monette (Gardner-Webb) 7-6 (4)
3. Oskar Antinheimo/Jack Curtis (Elon) def. Cathal Butler/Alex Lepine (Gardner-Webb) 6-1
 
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (2,1,5,6,3,4)