LONGVIEW – LeTourneau men's tennis team split a pair of matches Saturday -- the second one offering every bit of excitement in the early college tennis season.
 
The YellowJackets beat Mary Hardin-Baylor, 7-2, in the first match of the day before falling to Millsaps in a cliffhanger, 5-4, in a match that ended just before 11 p.m.
 
The Jackets (3-1) won the top five singles flights to clinch the match against the Crusaders after taking a 2-1 lead into doubles. Jimmie Henson and Christian Farris beat Keaton Brown and Alejandro Omana, 8-4, at No. 1 pairs. Julian Lee and Miles Grubbs were 8-5 winners over Cody Aaron and Robert Galligan at No. 3.
 
Julian Lee cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 3 singles. Nathan Schmidt beat Alejandro Omana, 6-2, 6-3, win at No. 4 singles. Henson got past Aaron, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1 singles. Farris was a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Galligan at No. 2 singles. Rodrigo Vazquez Chairez beat Keaton Brown at No. 5 singles, 6-2, 6-4.
 
In the night match, the Jackets went down 2-1 after doubles. Henson and Farris picked up the lone pairs point when they authored an 8-5 victory over Brandon Beck and John Kimball at the top spot.
 
Schmidt coasted to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Ben Falk at No. 4 singles. That tied the match at 2-2. Vazquez was a 6-3, 7-5 winner over Trevor Vaccaro at No. 5 singles, knotting the match at 3-3. Farris won his No. 2 singles match over Millsaps' Jacob Niehaus, 7-5, 6-1. That put the YellowJackets up, 4-3.
 
But the Majors closed out the final two matches to seal it.
 
The YellowJackets host Centenary 10 a.m. next Saturday.