LEWISTON – Gasping for air, cramped and just plain exhausted, freshman Alex Scott looked defeated. And then, he took to the air.

Fighting a cramp in his leg that forced him to take a timeout in the ninth game of the set, Scott reached up over his head, leaping more than a foot into the air to slam an overhead back at Williams senior Lex Urban. The point didn’t win the game for Scott, but it won his confidence, and that of the Middlebury crowd.

Two games later, Scott served and volleyed his way into Middlebury College history, hitting the final shot of the match as the Panthers overcame a strong start by the Ephs and won the Men’s Division-III National Tennis Championship at Wallach Tennis Center at Bates College Friday.

“I really don’t know how I got to that overhead,” Scott said. “I seriously thought I was going to be able to go about six inches.”

The win capped a 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 comeback win for Scott, and gave the Panthers a 4-3 edge in the match, clinching the school’s first-ever national tennis title.

“His body was quitting on him,” Middlebury coach David Schwarz said. “He couldn’t physically do much more, but his heart never gave out. That’s what won it for him.”

Earlier, in the doubles matches, Scott was paired with Ari Beilin, and the two took a commanding 7-3 lead in the eight-game pro set. In a match that would have clinched the doubles point for the Panthers, Scott and Beilin eventually lost to John Haywood and Urban 9-8 in a 7-4 tiebreaker.

“That was heartbreaking,” Scott said. “It really did take a while to get over that, to get it out of my head.”

Still showing signs of dejection, Scott dropped the first set of his singles match with Urban, 1-6.

“It was amazing to see how that doubles match turned, as the freshman got tight,” Schwarz said. “The funny thing is, the guy he beat in singles is probably the toughest No. 6 player in the country to beat in a pressure situation.”

In the second set, Scott fell behind 4-5 and faced elimination, but battled back to win three straight games, leaving Urban befuddled.

“There isn’t anyone else I would have rather had in a situation like that,” Williams coach David Johnson said. “Yesterday, we won our match just like this. I feel like we did everything possible to win, including a miraculous comeback in doubles.”

Already up a point after taking two doubles matches, the Ephs had to feel in control when four singles players each won their first set handily.

Andrew Murray took the first set at No. 1 singles, as did Jeff Kivitz at No. 3, Scott MacKenzie at No. 5 and Urban at No. 6. Momentum started to shift, however, when Brian Waldron of Middlebury upended Daniel Murray 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, making the overall score 2-1 in favor of the Ephs.

“We were all kind of depressed after the doubles matches,” Waldron said. “That’s the thing about this team though. Every single one of us has won a big match this year. You never know where the points will come from.”

Andrew Murray closed out NESCAC Player of the Year Nate Edmunds at No. 1 singles to give Williams a 3-1 edge, but each of the final three matches were starting a third set.

Middlebury won them all.

At No. 4 George Mayer overcame a second-set swoon to down Haywood 6-0 in the third set, while Beilin overcame a slow start after his doubles collapse to best Kivitz 6-1, putting the weight squarely on Scott’s shoulders.

“I could see the crowd coming in,” Scott said. “Coach (Steve) Hulce came over to me and told me that it was all on me.”

With both sections of stadium seats at either and of the four-court bank jammed with spectators, and with still others lining the fences behind the semi-transparent black windscreens, Scott pulled off the unthinkable.

“I had never beaten him before,” Scott stammered after the team was presented with the trophy. “I had been up 3-0 in the third on him before and lost. This was good timing I guess.”

Williams has now been to the finals in four consecutive seasons. After two straight wins, the Ephs have now lost two consecutive national title games, but have still won three of the last six.

Third place

Patrick Redmond of Emory came back from a set down to give the defending national champion Eagles a third-place title with a 4-3 match win over California-Santa Cruz.

Emory finished the season 24-2. The UCSC Banana Slugs finished the year 26-6.

The Eagles took a 1-0 lead with two quick wins at first and second doubles. UCSC came back with straight set wins from Matt Seeberger at No. 1 singles, Brian Casey at No. 2 singles and Andrew Cohen at No. 5 singles.

Alex Jacobs and Jesse Ferlianto won at No. 3 and No. 6 singles for Emory, setting up Redmond’s deciding 6-7 (4) 6-4, 6-3 win.

Singles and doubles

The singles and doubles draws at the Men’s Division-III National Championships were released on Thursday.

Bates sophomore Will Boe-Wiegaard is seeded eighth overall, and will play on the sixth open court following the start of play on Saturday.

Boe-Wiegaard will be in the same bracket as No. 2 overall seed Peter Taylor of Washington of Maryland. The No. 1 overall seed is Evan Tindell of MIT. He will face Kevin Casey of California-Santa Cruz at 9 a.m.