EVANSTON, Ill. — In the first of two matches in Evanston, Illinois, this weekend, the No. 7 Columbia men's tennis team earned its third-straight victory, taking down DePaul, 6-1, at the Combe Tennis Center on Friday afternoon.
 
Columbia (6-2) was challenged early on, running into a 1-0 deficit after dropping the doubles point. Using an adjusted lineup, Jackie Tang/Anand Saluja fell at No. 3 doubles before Jason Lui/Alex Kotzen earned a 6-4 win on the middle court. Needing a tiebreak to decide, the Lions' top tandem of Adam Ambrozy/Rian Pandole was bested, 7-6, to give DePaul (5-9) the edge.
 
Quickly evening the score was No. 88 Tang, topping Vito Tonejc, 6-1, 6-2, on court one. The Lions earned another two wins in straight sets from Pandole and Austen Huang to make it a 3-1 lead for the good guys.
 
The remaining courts, however, wouldn't come so easy. At No. 4 singles, 116th-ranked Kotzen was able to muscle out a three-set triumph after dropping the first set to clinch the team victory for Columbia.
 
Finishing out the matches, Ambrozy grinded through a third-set tiebreaker, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6, before Lui finished things off with another three-set triumph, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
 
Columbia will be back in action Saturday, facing No. 34 Northwestern at 1 p.m. ET.

For the latest on the Columbia men's tennis, follow @ColumbiaMTennis on Twitter and Instagram, and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.