CORAOPOLIS, Pa. - Penn St.-Behrend proved to be a tough challenge for the Franciscan men's tennis team but the Barons prevailed in a 6-3 win.

The Barons improve to 4-7 on the year and are perfect so far in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, 2-0.

"It's a lot closer than I wanted it to be," head coach Jeremy Ellis said. "This match was an eye-opener for us, showing it's not going to be a cakewalk. We can beat ourselves as easily as they can beat us. We have some work to do but, overall, a 6-3 win is still good."

It appeared that the Barons were on their way to an easy win when seniors David Freytag and Zachary Quiza quickly walked off the court with an 8-1 victory at No. 2 doubles, giving Franciscan its first point of the afternoon.

"Zack and David are just a solid No. 2 doubles team," Ellis said. "David being lefty, his serve, and Zack with his serve, it's tough to defend. It's going to be good."

Sophomores Jarek Sulak and John Gallagher gave the Barons a 2-0 lead after a 8-4 win at No. 1 doubles.

No. 3 doubles was a little bit of a different story as the match was close from the very beginning and had to be decided in a tiebreaker. Sophomore Connor Jooste and senior Joseph Staniszewski could not pull out the 9-8(5) win, which would have given the Barons a 3-0 lead going into doubles play.

"Losing 3rd [doubles] put a little pressure on us in singles for sure," Ellis said.

Behrend tied the match up at 2-2 with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Gallagher at No. 3 singles. However, Sulak was able to give Franciscan the lead once again, winning 6-1, 6-3 on court No. 2 and Freytag brought the Barons within one point of the win with his 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles

"Jarek and David are closing out matches really well so they are playing great, great tennis," Ellis said. "It's good to see David being an upper classmen, just seeing him play some solid tennis and Jarek is pulling back around, playing well."

The next point went in favor of the Lions as Quiza lost his No. 1 singles match 6-2, 7-5, marking the first time that the senior has lost a singles match during conference play in his entire career.

"Heck of a streak, heck of a title, but he came across a really good player," Ellis said. "The thing with playing No. 1, you don't know what you're going to get and it takes a while to adjust. This guy had a big serve so it took Zack a while to adjust in the first set but he came back around and pushed him 7-5 in the second set. I look forward to seeing that rematch for sure."

Franciscan was holding on to a slim 4-3 lead while Jooste and freshman Richard Watson played their No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches. Jooste quickly took his first set 6-1 while Watson followed suit winning his first set 6-2. The freshman was the one to seal up the win for the Barons with a final score of 6-2, 6-0 on court No. 6 and Jooste earned the team's sixth point with a 6-1, 6-3 win.

The conference individual match winning streak was snapped at 83 games but the Barons will be looking to start up a new streak in search of the team's fourth consecutive AMCC championship.

"We've just got some conditioning to do, just to stay focused and work harder," Ellis said. "It's always hard. I find it easier to fight for the championship but it's harder to defend it. That's where we're at right now."

Franciscan will take a little bit of a break before resuming conference play after Easter when the team travels to Penn St.-Altoona on Friday, April 1, for a 4:30 p.m. match.