The Oglethorpe men's tennis team got a big win in Birmingham, Ala., Saturday morning, knocking off the home-standing Panthers, ranked No. 10 in the Atlantic South (while the Petrels are rated 16th), in a tight 5-4 decision.

The Petrels got just one doubles match, that one in an 8-6 victory for C.J. Antonio and Nick Roby at No. 1 after dropping the other two matches. That doubles win proved to be a big turning point, as it put the Petrels down 2-1 rather than 3-0 going into the singles competition.

Antonio picked up a big win to start the proceedings with a straight sets victory at No. 1, 6-2, 6-1, to tie the dual match at 2-2. Roby continued the Oglethorpe run at No. 3, taking his opponent down 6-4, 6-0 to give Oglethorpe a 3-2 lead. That lead became 4-2 moments later when Kirk Zhao won 6-4, 6-2 at No. 5. However, two Oglethorpe losses made it 4-4 with only Matt Jones' No. 6 match left on the board. Jones, who recently picked up his first win of the season against Berry on Monday, came through in a big way, winning 6-4, 6-2 to clinch the dual match and give the Petrels their biggest win of the year so far.

They now improve to 9-8 on the season, 3-1 in SAA play. Sunday's match at Millsaps has been cancelled due to storms in the Jackson, Miss., area, so the Petrels now return home next weekend for the final weekend of SAA play. They'll take on Rhodes on Saturday and Hendrix on Sunday. Both matches start at 11 a.m.