RALEIGH, N.C. – Santiago Ordonez won a match-clinching tiebreaker to lift the Davis & Elkins tennis team to a key regional victory over Shaw University on Monday afternoon. With the win, D&E improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in Atlantic Region play.

The Senators started strong by sweeping the doubles matches to take an early 1-0 lead, a point that proved crucial as the Bears fought back to split the singles contests. Shaw, an NCAA Tournament qualifier last season, is a perennial regionally-ranked team in the Atlantic.

Ordonez's match was one of three that went the distance, as the two teams battled for more than four hours. At No. 1 singles, Viktor Yanev secured the first singles point for the Senators with a decisive 6-1, 6-3 victory before Shaw evened the match with a win at No. 6. The Bears then surged ahead, claiming the No. 4 singles match to tie it at 2-2 before taking a hard-fought, three-set victory at No. 2 singles to move in front.

With the match on the line, freshman Philipp Fedorczuk at No. 3 and Ordonez at No. 5 fought through third sets. Fedorczuk finished first, winning 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 to level the match at 3-3. Ordonez then delivered the deciding blow, overcoming a 2-4 deficit in the tiebreaker by winning five straight points to secure the victory and give D&E the 4-3 decision.

"It was an excellent college tennis match, and our guys competed all the way through," head coach Mark Walters said. "Win or lose, every guy created opportunities for himself, and where we lost, it was just a matter of the other team stepping up. In the end, we had a guy in Santiago who is known for not missing and grinding hard, and that proved to be the formula for a big win."