After almost five and a half hours of action, the second-seeded DePauw Tigers defeated third-seeded Denison, 5-3, in the semifinals of the 2015 North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament at the Mitchell Fieldhouse in Granville, Ohio.

The Big Red fell behind early after dropping two of the three doubles flights. Denison grabbed the early advantage when senior Grant Veltman and junior Jackson O'Gorman-Bean avenged an April 12 loss to Eric Vannatta and Alex Kaczkowski with an 8-6 victory at No. 1 doubles. With the win, the DU duo improved to 9-4 at the flight with their fourth-straight win. The Tigers gained the match lead after doubles play with victories at second (8-5) and third (8-3) doubles.

In singles action, the Tigers pulled to within one point of ending the match with wins at second and third singles. However, Denison continued to fight and, behind a pair of three-set decision, pulled within one points of DePauw. After suffering a three-set loss roughly two weeks ago, freshman Jack O'Koniewski evened the score with Patrick Farrell with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win at fourth singles.

Trailing 4-2, Veltman made it a one-point match with his second three-set victory over Chris Bertolini, the No. 10 player in the central region, this season. After dropping a 6-1 decision in the opener at No. 1 singles, Veltman won a battle of wills with Bertolini, outlasting the top DePauw singles player 7-3 in a 12-point breaker. In the third-and-decisive set, both players held serve through the first four points. With the set tied at 2-2, Veltman broke Bertolini to take a one-game lead. He went on to win the next three, which included another break point. Veltman improved to 16-13 on the year and 11-9 at first singles.

DePauw's final point came at No. 6 singles where Matt Santen defeated Owen Smith 7-5, 1-6, 6-2.

The Big Red (11-10) will be back in action on Sunday when they take on Oberlin in the third-match match at 2 p.m. DePauw (12-10) take on top-seeded Kenyon in the championship match which will also be played at 2 p.m.