RINDGE, N.H. - Down 3-0, the Saint Michael's College men's tennis team won its final four singles matches to rally for a 4-3 victory over Franklin Pierce University on Tuesday. First-year Ferm Koppelmans (Veghel, The Netherlands/Udens College) earned his second winner-take-all singles win in three weeks to cap the comeback.
 
Thanks to a triumph in its regular-season finale, the Purple Knights remain alive for a Northeast 10 Conference Championship berth with three key matches left around the league between Wednesday and Saturday. The Purple and Gold also set a school record with its 11th victory this school year.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (11-6, 4-6 NE10), Franklin Pierce (2-16, 1-9 NE10)

LEADERS

• Senior Simon Lundholm (Le Luc, France/CNED), 2 wins
• Sophomore Jamie Macpherson (Durham, United Kingdom/Framwellgate School Durham), 2 wins
• Koppelmans, 1 win
• Junior Garrett Brooker (Charleston, S.C./Oceanside Collegiate Academy), 1 win

MATCH FACTS

• Saint Michael's broke a tie with the 1980-81 squad for the school's season wins record.
• The Purple Knights earned their sixth 4-3 win of the season, all within the last 13 matches, including their fifth determined by the final singles match. Before this stretch, Saint Michael's had totaled six one-point wins in its prior 162 matches since April 7, 2015. Four different players have accounted for those clinching, tiebreaking victories this year, with Koppelmans owning two of the last three.
• Saint Michael's won both regular-season matches against the Ravens this year, taking consecutive meetings for the first time since Oct. 9, 2011, and April 14, 2013.
• Macpherson picked up his 12th doubles win of the season, tying for third in program history. He and Lundholm are also tied with two others for sixth with 21 victories between singles and doubles. At 12-4 in singles, Lundholm is one short of a program record held by three players.
• Brooker is tied for ninth with 20 total wins this school year.

THE ACTION

• Lundholm and Macpherson opened doubles play with a 6-2 victory in the No. 2 spot, improving to 9-6 as a tandem this season.
• Brooker and junior Viktor Boban (Zagreb, Croatia/Franjo Bucar/Frostburg State) followed with a 6-3 setback in the first position.
• Franklin Pierce captured the opening point by virtue of senior Julius van den Broek (Bergschenhoek, The Netherlands/Wolfert Lyceum) and sophomore Richard Lin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) losing 7-6 (7-4) at No. 3. The match marked van den Broek's return to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 28.
• The Ravens took the first two singles matches, including as Boban, the 19th-ranked player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) East Region poll, suffered a 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) setback at No. 2.
• Brooker helped the Purple Knights begin chipping away at their 3-0 deficit by taking down the 13th-ranked player in the region, 6-3, 6-4, in the top spot, and Macpherson earned a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) win in the fourth spot.
• Lundholm knotted the contest thanks to his 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 5, leaving the contest on the racquet of Koppelmans at No. 6. After splitting his first two sets, the rookie held on in the third set to cap a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win for himself and a 4-3 triumph for the Purple Knights.