Denison junior Owen Smith's fifth-singles win propelled the 34th-ranked Big Red to a 5-4 victory over No. 40 Oberlin on Saturday afternoon in Oberlin, Ohio.

Holding on to a slim 4-3 match lead with just two singles flights left to play, Smith locked up the Big Red's fourth-straight win with a 7-5, 7-6 victory over Robert Gittings at No. 5 singles. Billy Lennon set the final score with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory at the sixth flight.

After dropping the first doubles point of the match, the Big Red rallied to take a 2-1 lead by winning both first and third. The No. 1 doubles team of Kevin Brown and Jackson O'Gorman-Bean defeated Abraham Davis and Callan Louis to tie the match at 1-1. Jack O'Koniewski and Smith broke the tie with a hard fought 9-7 victory over Robert Gittings and Jeremy Lichtmacher at the third flight.

The Yeomen squared the match at 2-2 with a straight-set victory at second singles. However, wins by O'Gorman-Bean and Brown at the No. 3 and No. 1 flights, respectively, put Denison one point away from the win. After winning a tiebreaker in the opening set, O'Gorman-Bean broke the match tie with a 6-4 decision in the second set against Louis.

Brown extended the lead with a three-set win over Michael Drougas. Brown shutout Drougas 6-0 in the opening set before falling 7-6 in the second. In the decisive third set, the DU freshman doubled up Drougas 6-3 to earn the point. Davis closed the deficit back to one with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 win over O'Koniewski at fourth singles.

With the win, the Big Red improves to 8-4 while the loss drops the Yeomen to 10-6. Denison returns to action on Tuesday when they host 18th-ranked Kenyon. Match time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.