Release courtesy of Swarthmore Athletic Communications

CLAREMONT, Calif. – Swarthmore College's Michael Melnikov and Utham Koduri gutted out a three-set victory in the national doubles quarterfinals at the NCAA Men's Tennis Individual Championships on Saturday.
 
The duo moves on to the semifinals for the second time in three years. With the win, Melnikov and Koduri also became the Garnet's winningest doubles pair in program history, recording their 44^th win as a team. They surpassed the previous mark of 43 that was held for four decades by Eric Prothero and Rick Vanden Bergh since 1985.

HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Swarthmore duo took on a team from Pomona-Pitzer who upset the third seed in Friday's opening round and was ranked just one spot behind the Garnet at No. 6 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Rankings.
 
- Melnikov and Koduri battled through a back-and-forth first set that ultimately needed to be settled by a tiebreak. The Garnet came out on top 7-4 to take the opening frame 7-6.
 
- The Sagehens answered in the second set, coming away with a 7-5 success to send the match the distance.
 
- In the decisive set, the two sides held serve for the first 10 games and sat in a 5-5 deadlock. Pomona-Pitzer served first so Melnikov and Koduri never held the lead and needed to keep responding with a hold of serve in order to keep pace with the Sagehens. Finally, the Swarthmore pair broke their opponents and took a 6-5 edge with a chance to serve for the match. Melnikov and Koduri held for one final time to earn the 7-5 victory and advance to the semifinals.
 
UP NEXT
The Garnet duo will take on the bracket's number-two seed, and the top-ranked pair in the ITA Rankings, from the University of Chicago in Sunday's semifinal match.