WHITEWATER, WI --- The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater rode a sweep of the doubles and eked out hard-fought singles matches to take a 5-0 win over The College of New Jersey in the NJAC Men's Tennis Championship match on the Warhawks' home courts on Saturday.

The win gives the Warhawks the conference's first-ever automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Tournament.

The match was far closer than the 5-0 final score indicated, as the Warhawks and Lions were locked up and down the singles lineup but a win by John Zakowski on the No. 1 court and the clinch by Alex Gray on the No. 5 court staved off the comeback attempt by the Lions.

At the point of clinch, three other singles matches were in the third sets and one match had just begun the second set after a wild first set tiebreak.

The Warhawks gained control early, however, as Zakowski and Gray earned the first point of the championship with an 8-4 win over Justin Wain and Matthew Michibata at No. 1 doubles. Niclas Goltz and Ryan Mitchell put the home team up 2-0 with an 8-4 win over Akul Telluri and Jacob Quijano on the No. 3 court. Cole Lindwall and Rory Calabria completed the Warhawks' doubles sweep with an 8-5 victory over Nick Matkiwsky and Nikola Kilibarda on the No. 2 court.

Zakowski, the West Division Player of the Year, faced off with East Division Player of the Year Justin Wain at No. 1 singles. Zakowski came away with the 6-4, 6-0 victory to put the Warhawks' up 4-0.

With four singles in third sets, Gray was the first one done to clinch the title. He edged Matkiwsky 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on the No. 5 court.

At the point of clinch, Michibata was up 4-1 in the third set over Lindwall at No. 2 singles. Calabria was up 6-3, 6-5 over TCNJ's Adrian Tsui at No. 3. UWW's Brendan Pietila and TCNJ's Derek Jordan were deadlocked at 3-3 in the third set at No. 6. TCNJ's Kilibarda had just completed a first-set tiebreak at No. 4, earning the 7-6 (7-5) win in set one over Goltz, the West Division Rookie of the Year.

UW-Whitewater will make its 13th appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the last 15 seasons. The team will find out its regional draw Monday via press release on NCAA.com.