ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The clinching point proved to be too elusive for Whitman College's men's tennis team Sunday afternoon as the 15th-ranked Missionaries narrowly missed advancing into the quarterfinal round of the NCAA 2015 Division III tournament when No. 5 Washington (Mo.) University rallied for the final two points to steal a 5-4 victory in the third round regional championship match on the Bears' home courts at the Tao Tennis Center.

The loss ends an 11-match win streak for Whitman (22-6). WashU (20-5) now advances into the national quarterfinal round contested in Mason, Ohio.

Sunday's contest was more like a battle as the team's slugged it out over more than four hours. Neither team separated itself from the other by more than one point and the match was tied four times. The only other lead WashU owned was when it crept ahead 3-2 with a win at No. 4 singles. The advantage was short lived as Zach Hewlin evened the score with a commanding (6-0, 6-3) victory at 2-singles. Colton Malesovas inched Whitman to within match point following Hewlin's victory with a win of his own at No. 1 over WashU's John Carswell.

A win at 3-singles and then a win by retirement at No. 5 allowed the Bears to complete their come-from-behind rally.

The buildup to those final two matches was epic.

Hewlin and Jake Hoeger made quick work of WashU's Jason Haugen and Kevin Chu at 2-doubles with an 8-3 victory in which the Whitman pair never trailed. The other doubles points went the extra mile to set the tone for the remainder of the day.

The war staged at 3-doubles was a hint at how the championship match would play out -- point for point, game for game, and ultimately decided by a tiebreaker.

Tied at 4-4, 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7 the contest at No. 3 eventually crept toward a winner when the Bears' Jason Haugen and Kevin Chu won the 15th game to go ahead 8-7, one game away from victory. Robert Carter and Petar Jivkov weren't giving in, however, and the Whitman pair forced another tie at 8-8 with a win, sending the match into a tiebreaker.

As with the initial 16 games the tiebreaker also went back and forth until Haugen and Chu were able to eke out a final point in a 7-5 win for WashU's first point of the day and the regional championship's first of four ties.

The Bears looked to have a second point in hand with a 6-3 lead at No. 1 doubles but Malesovas and James Rivers would have much to say over the match's next games.

The Whitman tandem won the next game but WashU's Jeremy Bush and Ross Putterman answered with a win to move one game away from match victory at 7-5. That would be their last win, however, as Malesovas and Rivers reeled off four straight wins to rally for a momentum-swinging 9-7 win, which allowed Whitman to roll into singles action with a 2-1 lead.

Momentum was fickle on the day, though, as WashU wrested it back with straight-set singles wins at Nos. 6 and 4 to take its first lead of the day.

Momentum. Fickle. Again.

Hewlin pulled Whitman even with his rout of Putterman at No. 2, and Malesovas claimed the fourth point with a challenging, but straight set -- 6-1, 7-6(2) -- win over Carswell.

The win just wasn't meant to be for Whitman as WashU took the 3-singles match in straight sets, then clinched the match at No. 5 when Chase Friedman was forced to retire in the third set of his match against Jonny Wu. Friedman had taken the first set from Wu, 7-5, but aggravated an injury in a second-set loss. Friedman valiantly took to the court to start the third but wasn't able to continue.

"I couldn't be more proud of Chase and the rest of the guys," said head coach Jeff Northam. "(WashU) is a very talented team and we knew we'd have to bring out our best tennis to advance. I thought we did today, but sometimes it's just not in the cards. All but one team finishes its season with a loss, but this will be a defeat that I'll look back on -- and I hope the guys will, too, especially the seniors -- and remember with a great deal of pride."

While the season comes to a close for the team, Malesovas will continue on in Ohio at the conclusion of the NCAA team championship after garnering an invitation to the NCAA D-III singles championship. As well, Malesovas and Rivers are one of four alternates, one pair from each region, for the doubles championship.