Knoxville, TN -- Austen Huang and Max Westphal secured two wins a piece as the Columbia men's tennis team defeated Charlotte 5-2 in Knoxville. Huang and doubles partner Roko Horvat quickly collected the Lions' first win in a 6-0 result over Thomas Brown and Vasco Prata. Playing from the top doubles spot, Westphal and Theo Winegar secured the doubles point by defeating #11 Coy Simon and Stefanos Savva, 6-4.

Henry Ruger kicked off the singles competition with a convincing 6-1, 6-0 win over Abhimanyu Vannemredd from the fifth spot. Huang picked up a straight-set win as well, defeating Vasco Prata 7-6 (8-6), 6-4.

Following tightly contested third-set losses from #77 Hugo Hashimoto and Horvat from the fourth and fifth spot, respectively, the Lions held a slight 3-2 edge over the 49ers. With the match potentially on the line, Columbia would rely on its top two contenders to secure the victory.

Rebounsing from a 5-7 result in the first set, #8 Alex Kotzen clinched the match for the Lions, taking the second set 6-2 and the third 6-1. Just behind him, Westphal iced the cake with a 2-1 result against Mikhail Sokolovskiy. Westphal claimed the first set, 7-5, before ceding the second, 4-6. The sophomore secured his singles victory with a 6-3 third set.

Columbia will resume competition on Sunday, facing #2 Tennessee at 1:00 P.M..