The Alma College Men's Tennis team welcomed conference rival Hope College to the Stone Recreation Center for a match on Saturday. After finding themselves down 4-2 to the Flying Dutchmen, the Scots rallied back to win the final three matches of the afternoon to claim the 5-4 victory at home.

With the win, Alma improves to 7-5 overall and 1-0 in the MIAA. Hope drops to 2-9 on the year and 0-1 in conference matches with the loss.

Saturday was a major victory for the men's tennis program, marking the first time the Scots have defeated Hope in over a decade.

"This was such a big win for us," said Alma Head Coach Chris Sandro. "This victory was a nice validation for all the hard work the guys have been putting in."

"Alma has not been able to defeat Hope in over 10 years so this really shows how far our program has come."

Following a slim 8-6 defeat at first doubles, the duo of seniors Logan Beard and Gordon Rumschlag would knot the match at 1-1 with  a 9-7 victory in position two.

The Scots would drop a highly contested third match 8-6 to enter the singles portion of the afternoon down 2-1.

In first singles, Sr. Joshua Gove would emerge victorious in a three-set thriller (6-4,3-6,6-3) to tie the match at 2-2.

Alma would go down 3-2 after match two, but the Scots would respond with a 6-1,6-2 victory by Fr. Grant Hill in position three to square the match at 3-3.

Hope would claim the fourth singles match to go up 4-3 which meant the Scots would have to win out to claim victory.

So. Jared Guy answered the call at fifth position 6-1, 7-5 to tie the score at 4-4 heading into the final match of the afternoon.

With history on the line, Alma turned to Rumschlag to bring home the victory. The senior responded and clinched the historic win for the Scots in a 7-6, 7-5 battle at sixth position. 

Alma continues conference play on Wednesday, April 2nd, when they take on Adrian College on the road at 4:00 p.m.