IRVINE, Calif. – The 45th-ranked UC Irvine men's tennis team came up clutch down the stretch to defeat No. 62 Dartmouth in a 4-3 thriller Saturday at Anteater Tennis Stadium.
 
The 'Eaters (10-3) were locked in a back-and-forth battle with the Big Green before three-set singles victories from Noah Zamora and Lawee Sherif gave the home team their sixth-straight win.
 
Dartmouth (9-5) took the early lead with doubles wins at Nos. 2 and 3. UCI's 82nd-ranked duo of Andy Nguyen/Noah Zamora were up 5-4 at the top of the lineup when the point was clinched.
 
Nguyen quickly brought the Anteaters even as he dispatched Hikaru Takeda, 6-0, 6-1, at No. 2 singles. Nguyen, who has not dropped a set since Feb. 23, extended his win streak to eight matches.
 
The Big Green pulled back out front with a straight-set triumph on court four before Rithvik Krishna upended Henry Ren, 6-4, 6-4, at the third position to tie it up once again.
 
The seesaw battle continued with the final three courts going to a third set.
 
Dartmouth went up 3-2 with a hard-fought win at No. 6. Sohrob Amiryavari nearly completed an improbable comeback as he was down 5-2 in the third and was in a 40-0 hole before clawing his way all the way back to a 6-5 lead. Alex Knox Jones then held serve and kept the momentum in the tiebreaker for the 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory.
 
UC Irvine was down but not out as 58th-ranked Noah Zamora stepped up with an impressive 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 win over Carlos Guerrero Alvarez at No. 1. Seconds later, Lawee Sherif secured the victory at the fifth spot. Sherif showed incredible resilience as he responded from a tough second set, where he had an injury scare and lost a 6-1 tiebreaker lead, to take down Yujiro Onuma, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-4.
 
UCI is right back in action tomorrow when it hosts No. 10 Harvard at 1 p.m.