MOBILE, Ala. – The second-seeded Embry-Riddle men's tennis team opened play in the 60th annual NAIA National Championship with a 5-1 win over William Carey (13-10), Wednesday at the Mobile Tennis Center. The Eagles, who earned a first round bye, won two out of three doubles and three singles matches to advance to the quarterfinal round on Thursday.

Adrian Bayh and Patrick Besch registered the first point for the Eagles with an 8-2 defeat of Younes Hidass and Toni Gauta at No. 2 doubles. At the third doubles spot, the ERAU duo of Peter Francis and Simon Felix fell behind 5-4. With Francis serving, the Eagles battled back to tie score at 6-6, broke the Crusaders twice and held on Felix's serve to take the match 8-5 and put the Blue and Gold up 2-0.

Playing only their third match of the season together and their first since Mar. 19, Jan Hoekzema and Chris Freeman got an early lead on Jody Classen and Thomas Rizk, but the Crusader pair battled back to move ahead 6-5 at the top spot. The Eagles tied things up at 6-6, but the next point went to the Crusaders and that see-saw trend continued, resulting in an 8-8 deadlock. Classen and Rizk mananged to get the only team point for the Crusaders with a 7-2 win in the tiebreaker, making the team score 2-1 in favor of Embry-Riddle heading into singles play.

Besch was the first to finish his match at No. 3 singles as he made quick work of Rizk with a 6-1, 6-3 win. Felix followed with a straight set win of his own, downing Ribalta 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5 singles.  The Eagles had match point on courts one, two and six. David Spennare won the race for the clincher, topping Ivanov 6-2, 6-2 to help seal the Eagle win.

The Eagles improved their overall record to 15-6 on the year and will play Point Loma Nazarene, who advanced courtesy of a 5-2 win over Union (Ky.), in Thursday's quarterfinals. Match time is slated for 9 a.m. (CST).