FLUSHING, N.Y. — Third-seeded Webb Institute won four singles matches to come from behind to defeat the Culinary Institute of America, 5-4, to claim the 2018 Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday afternoon at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The Webbies (5-2) upended the top two seeds to secure their first title, handing the regular-season champion Steels (6-1) their first loss of the season and snapping their two-year reign atop the conference.

Culinary and Webb both earned spots in the final with 5-1 victories in their semifinal matches over Vaughn and Pratt, respectively.

The Steels took a 2-1 lead after the doubles session with the No. 2 pair of Alex Cordell and Eduardo Guevara earning a break at 7-6 and held to close out an 8-6 win.

In the singles play, Webb's Kevin Pritchard cruised to a 10-2 win at the No. 6 position to level the overall match before Culinary's Cassidy Seo and Wonil Chung posted the next two points at No. 1 and No. 3 singles to move back ahead 4-2.

With Webb pulling away at No. 4 and No. 5 singles, the No. 2 match between Webb's Oscar Como and Culinary's Guevara proved to be the decisive match. Guevara battled through cramps to try to salvage the title for the Steels, but Como closed him out 10-5, to be the only player in the final two secure two points. Shortly after Como's match went final, Luke Hebermann and Galen Ng both wrapped up the first title for the Webbies with matching 10-4 victories. 

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2018 HVIAC Men's Tennis Championships

Semifinals

#1 Culinary def. #4 Vaughn, 5-1 | Box
#3 Webb def. #2 Pratt, 5-1 | Box 

Championship

#3 Webb def. #1 Culinary, 5-4 | Box

Tournament Champions

Webb Institute

Tournament Runner-Up & Regular Season Champions

The Culinary Institute of America