ERIE, Pa. - The Franciscan men's tennis team locked up the No. 1 seed in the AMCC Conference on Sunday, with a 7-2 victory over conference opponent Penn.-St. Behrend.

After warmups concluded and team lineups were introduced, doubles play commenced. No. 3 doubles duo senior David Freytag and Jack Galla got things started the right way for the Barons, with an 8-0 domination of a match. Aggressive service returns kept the match out of reach for the Lions, and Galla registered key first serves in the final game to clinch the first point of the day for the Barons.

Courts 1 and 2 both played witness to two dynamic matches. At No. 2 doubles, junior Connor Jooste and sophomore RJ Watson found themselves down match point twice at 8-7, but key serves from Jooste kept the Barons in the match. They clinched a nail-biter of a tiebreaker 8-6 for the match, controlling the net early and returning serves deep into the court.

Juniors Jarek Sulak and John Gallagher were down 2-0 early in the match, before holding Gallagher's serve at love. They would break back to even the match at 4-4, but Sulak's serve was immediately broken to give the Lions back the lead. After the changeover, the Barons earned back the break, and two games later were serving for the match. Again the Lions showed resilience, evening the score at 7-7. The score would reach 8-8 before a Gallagher slice return at 6-3 in the tiebreak gave Franciscan the win.

After key doubles matches went the Barons' way, they broke their huddle up 3-0 overall. Off the court first was team captain Freytag, who took advantage of his opponent's backhand inconsistencies at No. 3 singles to roll to a 6-0, 6-1 victory. He has lost a combined two games in his last four matches.

Two courts down, Jooste was putting the finishing touches on his No. 5 singles opponent. He simply outlasted his Behrend counterpart, running him from sideline to sideline before finishing dominant points with volleys off both sides. The junior is hitting his stride for the Barons at the right time, and was the fifth and deciding point for the Barons on the day.

No. 4 singles player RJ Watson gave his opponent his first loss against Franciscan. He screamed several serves past his opponent en route to a quick 6-2 first set win. Up 5-2 in the second, he experienced brief volley inconsistencies, which kept the match close for only minutes longer. The sophomore would clinch his match soon after at 6-4, putting Franciscan's sixth point in the books.

Gallagher lost a quick first set 6-3 at No. 2 singles. He nearly let the second set get away from him, but saved two match points down 5-3. The junior would clinch the second set in a tiebreak, 7-3, and the match would be decided by a ten-point tiebreaker. Despite improved baseline movement, Gallagher couldn't convert his only match point of the competition, losing a tough match via an 11-9 tiebreaker loss.

Sulak also found stiff competition at No. 1 singles. He lost his first set 7-6 in a highly contested tiebreak and watched the second set get away from him despite playing an impressive number of points at the net. The Baron served well despite a 6-2 second set loss, finishing before he really could find any serious momentum.

Galla represented Baron tennis well during his first-ever regular season matchup against Franciscan's chief conference rival. He drove consistent groundstrokes into alternating corners and targeted his opponent's backhand before a series of neutralizing volley winners. The freshman simply outlasted his opponent, staying patient on his own mistakes and maximizing on short ball opportunities on deuce points. He found victory in the form of a 6-3, 6-4 straight sets win.

In a season often made difficult by inconsistent play from the top of the lineup, it was the Barons' depth which carried the team to victory. The Barons will next take the court on Tuesday, April 11 at 3:30 p.m., in a joint match against non-conference opponent Cedarville University.