Williamsburg - Senior Marwan Ramadan rallied for a three-set victory at the No. 2 singles position to clinch the William and Mary men's tennis team's exciting come-from-behind 4-3 victory over No. 67 Northwestern on Friday night at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. After Northwestern won the doubles point, the College claimed singles wins at the top four positions, including Ramadan's clinching comeback triumph. The Green and Gold, ranked No. 68 nationally, downed its second Big Ten foe of the season in improving to 12-6 overall, while the Wildcats dropped just their second match of the season compared against 10 victories.

"We beat a very good team today, and obviously by their record they came in with a lot of confidence," head coach Peter Daub said. "It is a credit to our players to come back after losing the doubles point. The guys had the passion and desire to fight the good battle and continue to believe that it was in us to win the match. Northwestern is a good team under Coach Swan and Coach Drake and will do well in the Big Ten. We were fortunate to gut out a victory."

With the match hanging in the balance, Ramadan trailed by a set after Northwestern's Tobias Reitz won the final three games of the opening set for a 6-4 win. The Tribe senior pulled even with two late breaks including the second-set clincher in the final game to take a 6-3 victory. In the decisive third set, both players held serve over the opening three games, before Ramadan, who won the final four points of the fourth game, tucked a lunging passing shot just inside the left service box for a break to go up, 3-1. It was all Tribe from there as Ramadan won the final three games of the set, clinching it on a forehand winner up the left singles line for the 6-1 victory. He won his second straight match and ninth overall this season.

Northwestern took the doubles points with wins at the bottom two positions. The Tribe tandem of junior Keziel Juneau and sophomore Sebastien Vidal opened pairs' competition with a victory at the top spot. The Green and Gold duo went up a break early in the match only to have the Northwestern pair of Marc Dwyer and Tobias Reitz get back on serve with a break in the 11th game. Not to be outdone, Juneau and Vidal answered with a break, and the College served out the match for an 8-5 win. It marked the Tribe pair's second straight victory as they improved to 14-8 overall on the year.

The Wildcats took the initial point of the match tough with wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. At the second position, the Tribe team of senior Dominic Pagon and freshman Ilja Orre tailed the Northwestern pairing of Alex Sanborn and Joshua Graves, 6-1. The College team won four of the next five games to close to within 7-5, before the Wildcats claimed the victory. At the final spot, the Northwestern team of Andrew McCarthy and Alexander Thams won the final six games of the match to clinch the doubles point with an 8-2 win over Ramadan and sophomore Vanrun Pandit.

After Northwestern extended its lead to 2-0 with a victory at the No. 6 singles position, the College won the next three matches of the court to jump on top 3-2. Pagon started the switch in momentum with a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Alexander Thams, who entered the match at 16-4 overall and 8-2 in dual-match competition, at the No. 3 slot. The players traded breaks in the ninth and 10th games of the opening set, before heading to a tiebreaker. Three straight points from Thams in the tiebreaker gave the Wildcat player a 4-3 lead, but Pagon rallied to take the opening set with the final four points of the tiebreaker. In the second set, Pagon roared out the gates, taking the first three games, before breaking Thams in the final game with a cross-court winner to close it out. The Kingston, Jamaica native improved to 14-7 overall on the year, winning his sixth match in the last seven.

Juneau tied the match with a straight-sets win over Marc Dwyer at the top singles position. He broke early in the first set to take a 3-1 lead and carried it out for the 6-3 victory. In the second set, Juneau jumped up a break and maintained the break lead as players traded two games on each others serve in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth games of the set. The Tribe junior finally held in the 10th game and served out the match, 6-4, closing it out with an overhead smash. Dwyer entered the match as the hotest Wildcat player, sporting a 15-4 singles ledger. He was 10-1 in dual match competition at the No. 1 spot and had won five straight, including a three-set win over No. 18-ranked Brett Helgeson of Notre Dame. With the victory, Juneau improved his team-best singles mark to 17-8.

At the No. 4 singles spot, Vidal put the Tribe on top for the first time in the match with a straight sets win over Sanborn. The Tribe sophomore broke in the ninth game of the first set, before serving out a 6-4 opening set victory. Vidal quickly jumped on Sanborn in the second set, breaking him in the opening game and held on for the 6-4 win. It was his third straight victory as Vidal improved to 13-9 overall.

W&M will return to action when it treks to the West Coast to take part in the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship in La Jolla, Calif., March 5-7. The Green and Gold will wrap up its swing West by facing No. 15 Pepperdine on Mon-day, March 9.

#68 William and Mary 4, #67 Northwestern 3
Singles
No. 1 - Keziel Juneau (W&M) def. Marc Dwyer (NU) - 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 - Marwan Ramadan (W&M) def. Tobias Reitz (NU) - 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
No. 3 - Dominc Pagon (W&M) def. Alexander Thams (NU) - 7-6, 6-2
No. 4 - Sebastien Vidal (W&M) def. Alex Sanborn (NU) - 6-4, 6-4
No. 5 - Joshua Graves (NU) def. Ilja Orre (W&M) - 6-3, 6-0
No. 6 - Andrew McCarthy (NU) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) - 6-3, 6-2
Finishing Order: 6, 3, 1, 4, 5, 2*

Doubles
No. 1 - Juneau/Vidal (W&M) def. Dwyer/Reitz (NU) - 8-5
No. 2 - Sanborn/Graves (NU) def. Pagon/Orre (W&M) - 8-5
No. 3 - McCarthy/Thams (NU) def. Pandit/Ramadan (W&M) - 8-2
Finishing Order: 1, 2, 3*