SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga men's tennis took down Pepperdine for the first time in program history in dramatic fashion, 4-3, on Friday evening at the Stevens Center.
In a match that lasted more than four hours, the Waves and Zags traded points nearly the entire way until GU's Vincent Rettke won his third set on the only remaining court to help GU win.

"The guys came back and battled hard to get this win," head coach Jonas Piibor. "They really played for each other and they enjoy each other. They put in great work during the week and are getting some Ws on the weekend. LMU will be a tough match coming up tomorrow, and we expect another great WCC battle."

The match came down to the wire on No. 4. Rettke and Pepperdine's Matias Sborowitz split tiebreaks in each of the first two sets. In the first, Sborowitz took the breaker 19-17, while Rettke won a 7-5 breaker in the second. All other matches had finished, leaving the third set to decide the team victory. In that third set, Rettke jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but Sborowitz got a break point and then held serve to pull back within a game. Rettke served his way to the win with an ace on the final point to win 6-4 in the third set.

The Zags (12-6, 4-1) were on the verge of taking the doubles point, but Pepperdine (8-9, 2-2) stormed back to win in a tiebreak on No. 3. Then in singles, Gonzaga got off to a good start, but it appeared Pepperdine had control of the match until Rettke came from behind to win.

In doubles, Gonzaga's Sam Feit and Ruadhan O'Sullivan took care of business with a 6-4 win on No. 2, and after Pepperdine won 7-5 on No. 2, it came down to a tiebreak on No. 3. For GU, Kyle Everly and Hunter Egger battled to the end, but fell 7-5 in the tiebreaker.

Then in singles, O'Sullivan and Feit again were able to get wins sandwiched around a win by Egger to give Gonzaga its first three points of the match. O'Sullivan cruised to a 6-1, 6-4 win on No. 1, while Egger won 6-2, 7-5 on No. 6 to give Gonzaga a 2-1 lead. Feit then made it 3-1 with a straight-set 7-5, 6-3 win on No. 2.

After Pepperdine took victories on Nos. 3 and 5 to tie the score 3-3, it came down to Rettke and Sborowitz for the match.

Gonzaga will be back on the Stevens Center courts on Saturday at Noon when they host Loyola Marymount in West Coast Conference action. Links to live coverage will be available at GoZags.com.