Claremont, California - The fifth-ranked Tiger men's tennis team opened the Stag-Hen Invitational by scoring a narrow 5-4 victory over No. 17 Kenyon (OH) College on Friday.

Trinity is the fourth-seeded team at the event held at Claremont McKenna College and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges. The Tigers improved to 9-5 after the win over No. 5 seed Kenyon. Trinity also stands at 7-1 against NCAA Division III opponents.

"It was a good college match," revealed Head Coach Russell McMindes. "It was one of those crazy matches where we had all the control in the world. We didn't capitalize and close out the first sets. We lost three, three-set matches. It was nice to see us get through it."

The match between the Tigers and Lords went down to No. 5 singles, and Trinity's Matt Tyer supplied the victory. Tyer won the first set 7-6, lost the second 2-6, and took the final three games to bring home the third by a score of 6-4.

The Tigers led 3-0 after doubles. Tyer and Adam Krull won the No. 1 match by the tight score of 9-7, while Paxton Deuel and Clayton Niess took the No. 2 line, and Chas Mayer and Wilson Lambeth were winners at No. 3. Trinity went out to a 4-0 lead as Krull won No. 2 singles in straight sets.

Then, the Lords won the next four singles matches, albeit close ones. Deuel lost No. 1 singles by a tiebreaker in the third set. Lambeth fell 7-5 in the third on the No. 3 line, Mayer lost 6-4 in the third at No. 4 singles, and Niess dropped a straight-sets decision in the sixth match. Then came the rally by Tyer as the Tigers emerged victorious.

Trinity waited to play top seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, but the match was postponed until Saturday morning because of weather conditions. The Tigers will take on the defending NCAA champions on their home courts at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The finals of the tournament will be scheduled later in the day.