SURPRISE, Ariz. – The 61^st-ranked MSU Denver men's tennis team pushed No. 43 Biola (Calif.) to the end Friday, but ultimately dropped a 4-3 decision in the consolation bracket of the Pacific West Conference Tournament.
 
The seventh-seeded Roadrunners (13-5) cruised to the doubles point behind wins of 6-1 by Jeanloup Auzias and Dayton Fisher at No. 3 and 6-3 by Andy Caruana and Carlos Pinedo at No. 2.
 
Then Auzias sailed to a 6-4, 6-1 win over 18^th-ranked Sebastian Herrera at No. 1 singles to make it 2-0. Third-seeded Biola won the next three singles matches, but Caruana's 7-6 (7), 6-3 win at No. 4 singles tied it 3-3. It was Caruana's 12^th straight singles win to improve to 18-4.
 
In the final match to be completed, Alejandro Jimenez fell 0-6, 6-4, 4-6 at No. 3 singles. The Roadrunners also lost close decisions at No. 2 (Pinedo was defeated in three sets by 65^th-ranked Alexy Prokopchuk) and No. 5 (Jack McDermott lost in a second-set tiebreak).
 
The Roadrunners had lost 6-1 at Biola (17-8) on March 24.
 
"The guys left it all out there today," MSU Denver coach Josh Graetz said. "It was a great battle between two schools that competed hard. It's tough that it didn't go our way, but I couldn't have asked for much more."
 
MSU Denver will seek a victory in the seventh-place match at 10 a.m. (Denver time) on Friday against Fresno Pacific (Calif.). The Roadrunners won a regular-season meeting between the teams 6-1.
 
The Roadrunners entered the tournament ranked fourth in the West Region with a chance at securing one of four spots in the NCAA Tournament's West Regional, but are in danger of sliding behind the semifinalists Point Loma (Calif.) and Hawaii-Hilo (who will play in the third-place match) as well as Concordia-Irvine (Calif.), which will play Biola for fifth.