The Tusculum College men's tennis team outdueled Catawba College
and Mother Nature Sunday afternoon in a 5-4 victory in a South
Atlantic Conference match at the Nichols Tennis Complex.
The Pioneers (8-5, 2-0 SAC) received singles wins from Stefan
Vergeer and Steven Lin to break a 3-3 tie and claim the match
victory over the Indians (14-6, 3-3 SAC).
The start of the match was delayed nearly an hour as the court was
dried off following morning showers, and another shower midway
through the first half of singles brought play to a brief halt.
Despite the stoppages, the Pioneers were able to put away the
Indians for their fourth straight victory.
With the match tied 3-3 heading into the final three singles
matches, the Pioneers came through decisively in the bottom two
spots in the lineup. Vergeer won his match at flight six when Corey
Eldridge retired after dropping the first set, 6-0. Lin then
claimed the clinching point at flight five with a 6-1, 6-0 victory
over Uri Yarkoni.
Tusculum jumped to a 2-1 lead in doubles action, as Lin teamed with
Paul Wiederspahn for a 9-8 (9-7) victory at flight two over Alex
Macdonald and Matthew Nicholson, and the team of Drew Kiser and
John Taylor posted an 8-6 win at flight three over Eldridge and
Jess Goodall.
Lukas Winkelmann picked up the third point for the Pioneers at
flight one singles, defeating Macdonald 7-5, 6-2, but the Indians
won at flights two and three to level the match at 3-3.
The Pioneers will be back in action Monday when they host Wingate
at 11:30 a.m. at the Nichols Tennis Complex in a matchup of two of
the remaining three unbeaten teams in the SAC. The Bulldogs are 3-0
in the conference after claiming a 9-0 win at Carson-Newman on
Sunday.