GAMBIER, Ohio -- Two nationally-ranked teams matched up at the Jasper Tennis Center on Friday afternoon as the No. 29-ranked Kenyon College Owls hosted the No. 15-ranked Case Western Reserve University Spartans. The dual came down to the wire, with the visiting Spartans squeezing past the Owls by a score of 5-4.

The victory sent the Spartans to a 10-3 record while dropping the Owls to 5-6 this season. This was the first time Kenyon has failed to defend its home court in four tries this season, as the Owls came out on top in their first three duals in Gambier.

The tightly contested match began with a back-and-forth doubles battle. Kenyon's No. 2 duo of Eleni Dakos and Shadia Amado Aguad started the Owls off on the right foot, doubling up their doubles opponent 8-4. The match stayed close at 5-4, but Kenyon pulled away with three straight games to put the home team ahead 1-0 in the dual.

The Owls were on track for a second doubles win after Eleni Lazaridou and Allaire Berl fought back from a 2-0 deficit to take a 7-4 advantage in the top doubles bout, but CWRU's No. 1 duo stayed alive and completed a came back to win four straight points, taking the match 8-7 (7-3). The Spartans secured an 8-4 win over Lalasa Nagireddy and Ana Brand in the No. 3 match right before the No. 1 result, flipping the scoreboard and giving the visitors an early 2-1 edge.

After helping put Keyon on the board first in doubles, Amado Aguad added the first singles finish at No. 3. The sophomore cruised to a 6-0 set-one victory before grinding out a 6-4 win in set two to secure the sweep and tie the dual at 2-2. With the win, her seventh straight, Amado Aguad improves to a team-best 9-2 singles record in duals this season, including a 7-2 mark in the No. 3 spot.

The Spartans answered by reclaiming the lead with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Dakos in the No. 4 singles match, pulling within one point of clinching the dual. However, Kenyon kept their hopes alive with some help from Berl in the No. 2 singles match. The sophomore found herself down by a set after falling 7-5 in the first stanza, but she had battled back from down 6-2. Berl's momentum carried over into the next two sets, which she won 6-1 and 6-2 to claim the three-set victory and pull the Owls within one at 4-3.

After close matchups throughout, the Nos. 5 and 6 singles matches were even tighter. CWRU clinched the dual with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 win over Brand in the No. 5 match, which ended before two sets were decided in the marathon No. 6 match. Nagireddy clawed back from the brink of a straight-set sweep in that final contest, forcing an extended tiebreaker in set two. The senior's endurance and perseverance paid off shortly after forcing a deciding third set as her Spartan opponent had to withdraw due to injury, giving Nagireddy the win and closing the book on the 5-4 dual.

The dual marked Kenyon's last non-conference clash before their regular-season finale as the Owls open their conference slate on Wednesday, April 3, when they welcome The College of Wooster at 4:30 p.m.