The Georgetown men’s tennis team (11-9, 3-0 Big East) had a busy week, playing University of Maryland-Baltimore County (7-7) Wednesday and crosstown rival George Mason (13-6) Thursday.

The matches were of particular importance to senior captain Charlie Caris, as they represented the final two of his illustrious career on the Hilltop.

Head Coach Gordie Ernst credits Caris with a lot of the progress Georgetown has made in the past few years.

“Caris [has never] missed a match for the Hoyas,” Ernst told The Hoya earlier this week. “I think it’s worth mentioning and acknowledging a guy who has played all four years on the lineup for us — that is an accomplishment.”

Indeed, Caris delivered in a major way in his penultimate match at McDonough Tennis Courts, as the win against UMBC did not come at all easily. The Hoyas faced a 3-2 deficit with Caris and sophomore Alex Tropiano still playing and both needing wins to pull out the victory for their team.

And — in dramatic fashion— the two upperclassman standouts did just that.

Caris faced a 3-0 deficit in the third set, and Tropiano’s match went to a tiebreaker, but both players came up with gutsy wins in clutch situations to clinch the match for the Hoyas.

Ernst failed to respond to requests for comment for this story.

The close win continued what has been an impressive recent trend for the Hoyas — after beginning 2013 with losses in many closely contested matches, the Blue and Gray have managed to turn their season around completely, time and again finding ways to pull out wins against the odds.

The Big East tournament is all that is left for the men’s team, while the women’s side has one last regular season bout with Rutgers on Saturday before it takes a break ahead of its own conference tourney.

Final results of the matches against George Mason were not released by press time.