CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College men's tennis team advanced in the National Christian College Athletic Association Tournament with a 5-4 win over Belhaven University on Saturday afternoon at the MC Tennis Complex.

The match was originally scheduled to take place at Millsaps in Jackson, but with First Lady Michelle Obama speaking at Jackson State University's Commencement Ceremony, it was moved to Clinton.

With the victory, the Choctaws have all but sealed a spot in the NCCAA Championships in Mobile, beginning on May 10th. The Choctaws are scheduled to play at Campbellsville (KY) in the NCCAA MidEast Region championship next week, but the time and date have yet to be determined.

The Choctaws (14-8) got off on the right foot on Saturday with two doubles wins, including an 8-2 victory by sophomores Marcos Rocca and Petar Damjanovic at #1.

At the #2 spot, sophomore Lucio Menezes and freshman Maximilian Nilges clinched the ever-important second doubles point with a 9-7 victory. The Blazers picked up the #3 point with an 8-6 victory.

In singles action, MC needed three victories and got things started at the top as Rocca won in straight sets over Rafael Siqueira at #1 (6-2, 6-1).

The Blazers cut the lead to 3-2 with a straight-set win at #4 and tied things up with a straight-set victory at #6.

Menezes gave the lead back to MC with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Gabriel Da Costa at #2, but the Blazers (18-3) tied the score at 4-4 with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-0) victory at #3.

The match came down to the #5 singles match between sophomore Jose Rodrigo Gonzalez and Pawel Tarasewicz. Belhaven's man took the first set, but Gonzalez tied things up with a tie-breaker win in set #2.

In the finale, Jose jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held on for the 6-3 victory to clinch MC's victory.

The Choctaws avenged an earlier loss to Belhaven on March 15th that saw them lose 5-4 to the Blazers in Clinton.