COLUMBUS, Ga. - The No. 4-ranked Lander men's tennis team advanced to the NCAA Division II's Round of 16 for the second straight year Sunday after rallying to defeat No. 10-ranked Columbus State, 5-3, in one of two Southeast Regionals held at Columbus State's Mary V. Blackmon Tennis Center.

Lander, which improves to 19-5, will next face an undetermined opponent in its quest for its 13th national championship in Denver, Colo., May, 18-21.

Trailing 2-1 after the doubles portion of the match, Lander claimed four singles matches for the victory.

Columbus won at No. 1 and 2 doubles to take the early lead.

At No. 1, KP Pannu/Zach Whaanga upset Lander's nationally No. 8-ranked team of Marc Hofer, Loic Minery, 8-6. Lander claimed its sole doubles win at No. 2 as Chris Devoize/David Korsten, downed Marco Almorin/Martynas Zakaitis, 9-8. The Cougars notched the second win at No. 3 with the  Benedikt Wilde/Maciej Kierkus 8-2 win over LU's Ozan Cilidir/Alex Regner.

The Bearcats quickly tied the match at 2-2 when No. 14 ranked Marc Hofer downed CSU's Marco Almorin, 6-2, 6-2, in No. 2 singles. After No. 33-ranked Loic Minery gave Lander a 3-2 lead at No. 3 singles, with a 6-1, 6-2 victory, CSU's KP Pannu tied it again, 3-3, when he won by retirement against Chris Devoize at the No. 1 slot.

But it was all Lander from there.

Alex Springer earned the next Bearcat point at No. 6 singles with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Maciej Kierkus, then David Korsten clinched it at No. 5 by downing Zach Whaanga, 7-5, 6-2.

The Cougars end the season at 18-5.