Baltimore – UMBC sophomore Gaulthier Berret (Lagny Sur Marne, France) rallied from a set down to win at No. 5 singles, capping a Retriever rally which culminated in a 4-3 victory over Temple at the UMBC Tennis Courts.

UMBC improved to 12-5 on the campaign, while Temple lost for just the second time in their last eight matches and dropped to 16-7. The match took nearly five and a half hours to complete.

The Owls took the doubles point, edging UMBC at the Nos. 1 and 3 slots. The Retriever No. 2 duo of junior Rasid Winklaar(Willemstad, Curacao) and senior Mwali Phiri (Yonkers, N.Y.) outlasted Dmitry Vizhunov/Stanislav Stekolshikov, 8-2. But the Temple No. 1 duo of Filip Rams/Taylor Hairston broke UMBC junior Cristian Hodel (Calarasi, Romania) in the final game to edge Hodel and junior Joe Adewumi (Phoenix, Ariz), 8-6. The deciding match at No. 3 was on serve through 12 games, when the Temple tandem of Mansur Gishkaev/Andrey Morozov broke UMBC sophomore Adam Duprat (Bobigny, France) and went onto an 8-6 victory over Duprat and Berret.

The first five singles matches were decided in straight sets. Phiri and Winklaar went 2-0 as the both players won 6-2, 6-3 decisions at Nos. 6 and 2 respectively. Adewumi provided the third singles point, besting Hairston at the No. 4 slot, 6-4, 6-3.

The visitors captured matches at the Nos. 1 and 3 positions, setting the stage for the match between Berret and Gishkaev. The Temple junior took the first set, 6-3, and had three match points at 5-4 in the second set. But Berret drew even to deuce and fended off three additional match points in the game to tie the set at 5-5. He forced the set to a tie-breaker and cruised in the breaker, 7-1.

Berret was leading, 5-3, 40-0 in the deciding set when Gishkaev was defaulted for abusive language towards an official.

Berret also won the deciding match in three sets in the Feb. 12 victory over Old Dominion.

UMBC hosts Georgetown in their final home match of the season on Saturday, April 16 at 1:00 p.m.