Houston, TX - The 3rd ranked Argos of the University of West Florida rallied from a 4-1 deficit to defeat the 12th ranked Clippers 5-4 yesterday at the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Championships at Memorial Park Tennis Center in Houston, TX. The loss ends the Clippers 14-match winning streak.

The Clippers opened doubles play with a convincing 8-1 victory by junior Josep Molet (Sabadell, Spain) and sophomore Henning Ruenz (Muelheim-Kaerlich, Germany) over Diego Zorzi and Luis Arboleda at No. 3 doubles. Concordia would go ahead 2-0 when sophomore Alex Grubin (Belgrade, Serbia) and senior Rodrigo Teixeira (Vitoria, Brazil) beat Eduardo Cavasotti and Luis Bernardi 8-5 at No. 1 doubles. West Florida would get on the board at No. 2 doubles with an 8-3 win by Nicolas Barrientos and Patrick Bateman over Vlad Malkin (Moscow, Russia) and Kirill Azovtsev (St. Petersburg, Russia).

Concordia would add to their lead when #1 ranked Grubin defeated Cavasotti 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 singles and Azovtsev downed Jose Ycaza 6-2, 6-4 at No. 6 singles to give the Clippers a 4-1 lead.

The Argos started their comeback at No. 2 singles, where 25th ranked Barrientos beat Molet 6-2, 6-4. Zorzi topped sophomore Nik Boerger (Muenster, Germany) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) at No. 3 singles and Teixeira's 7-5, 6-1 loss to Bernardi at No. 4 singles tied the match at 4-4, with one match left to finish.

In the No. 5 singles match, Ruenz won the first set over Bateman 6-3. Bateman battled back in the next set to win 7-6 in a tie-breaker to force a third and final set, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Quarterfinal Round. In that decisive set, the two played a hard fought, see-saw battle that Bateman would eventually emerge victorious by a 6-4 score, vaulting the Argos into the National Quarterfinals.

Concordia has reached the NCAA Round of 16 in each of the past four seasons, however, has yet to advance to the Quarterfinals. The loss ends the Clippers 2007-2008 season at 18-3