"Obviously, Xavier came out and played really well," Winkler said. "They hit us first and got the doubles point, and it kind of made us realize we have to show up as well. We have a lot of young guys on the team right now and it showed that no matter what happens that anything is possible and we just had to go out there and play our game. Eventually, we rode the storm and everything turned out well." 

As the singles matches started to come to a conclusion, freshman Anthony Pero clinched the competition with a big win. 

"Some guys have not played one match," MSU coach Gene Orlando said. "Nick [Williams] and Carson were injured all fall, and Anthony just arrived to school so it was their first taste. We have a young team, we started three freshman, two sophomores and one senior, so a lot of it was being in the big moment for the first time."

After this victory for the team, the players and coaches are excited to see what lies ahead in the season for them. 

"The guys, regardless of whether they were winning or losing, had a great fight and were tough all the way through just to stay in the match and find a way to win," Orlando said. "We just have to take one match at a time, try to get better every day, and then when we get into game time know that we've made a jump and are ready for our next opponent."

The team has a game later that Saturday competing against Chicago State at 6 p.m., and will travel to West Point, NY to take on Yale on Jan. 18.