LEWISTON - Something just felt wrong about losing, especially at No. 1 doubles, and especially to Emory.

"That's not how it was supposed to be," Washington University's Chris Hoeland said. "They had beaten us before, but it was a close match, so being down 4-0 (and 5-1) was a bit surprising."

Hoeland and partner Charlie Cutler reeled off seven straight games to steal a point at No. 1 doubles and Hoeland rode that momentum to a come-from-behind win at No. 5 singles for another crucial point to lift Washington University of St. Louis to a thrilling 5-3 win over Emory University of Atlanta in the final match of the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Tournament at Bates College on Thursday.

"I had no idea what the score was at the time," Hoeland said. "It helped to be (separate from the rest of the matches). You can play your own match over there. We needed every point we could get."

Hoeland's win put the Bears ahead 4-3 in the first of three 3-set matches to finish, and Danny Levy put away the final shot of the match in a come-from-behind win of his own, a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles.

"It's so incredible to be able to win this for the team," Levy said. "I was just hoping I wouldn't mess up and be able to pull it out."

The title is the first for the Bears, who made it to the final eight for the first time last year as the host school.

Washington players passed around shirts following the match depicting the progression of the school's athletic programs. The win is the third NCAA title for the school, which also won the Division III men's basketball tournament this past winter.

Hoeland and Cutler's comeback at No. 1 doubles gave the Bears their first point, and Nirmal Choradia and John Watts made it 2-0 with a victory at No. 2 doubles.

Emory fought back with an 8-4 win at No. 3 to set up a tough set of six singles matches.

Isaac Stein of Washington gave his team a 3-1 lead with a straight-sets win at No. 6. The Eagles, who defeated Washington in their conference final, fought back with an upset-win at No. 1 singles by Michael Goodwin over Watts, the top-rated singles player in this weekend's draw. Oliver Lopp also won for Emory at No. 4 singles to even things up at 3-3.

The rest of the matches went to third sets.

"That was about as close as you can get in a tennis match," Washington coach Roger Follmer said. "We wouldn't want it any other way. We earned it."

In the day's first match, Middlebury and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps went the distance, too, with Claremont pulling out a 5-4 match victory on the racket of No. 3 singles player Mike Starr. Starr outlasted Middlebury's Andrew Thompson 12-10 in a first-set tiebreak, and hung on for a 6-2 win ion the second set to put the Stags over the top for third place.

Peter Odell and Rich Bonfiglio pulled the Panthers back to even after they fell behind 3-1. Bonfiglio (No. 5 singles) and Odell (No. 6) stirred the Middlebury faithful into a frenzy, but Starr was too much for Thompson.

Action continues Friday at Bates with the singles and doubles draws getting under way. The singles tournament will hold two rounds Friday and pare the field down to eight, while the doubles teams will play one round, and also end the day with the final eight.