DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The second-ranked Embry-Riddle men's tennis team maintained its unblemished record against NCAA I opponents this season with a 4-3 decision against Belmont (2-7), Thursday at the Crotty Tennis Complex. Playing according to NCAA I rules (one point for doubles), the Eagles won two of three doubles matches and collected three singles wins to improve to 8-1 on the year.

ERAU's Chris Freeman and J.R. Leonik stumbled against Rafael Matos and Henrique Norbiato, falling 8-2 at No. 2 doubles. The next match to finish was on court three where Peter Francis and Simon Felix bested Fernando Mussolini and Bruno Silva 8-2. The top-ranked ERAU duo of Adrian Bayh and Patrick Besch wrapped up the doubles point with an 8-5 win over Rodrigo Amaral and Renato Antun at the top spot to give the Blue and Gold a 1-0 lead heading into singles.

Felix and Francis grabbed easy straight set singles wins as Felix downed Amaral 6-0, 6-2 and Francis defeated Matos by the same margin to extend the Eagle advantage to 3-0. The Bruins cut into the lead, however, when Antun got past Freeman in three sets (6-4, 2-6, 6-2) at No. 1 singles and Silva held off Leonik 6-2, 7-6 (4) at the No. 6 spot.

Bayh got off to a slow start at No. 4 singles falling behind 5-2 to Mussolini, but the ERAU senior showed his resilience and fought back to take the set 7-6 (3). Down 4-3 in the second stanza, Bayh overtook Mussolini once again and clinched the Eagle victory with a 6-3 decision to earn his ninth singles win of the year.

Embry-Riddle returns to the court at 10 a.m. on Sunday to host Cleveland State at the Crotty Tennis Complex.