ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Lincoln Memorial defeated Tusculum 5-1 in the quarterfinal round of the South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Championship tournament Thursday morning at the Rock Hill Tennis Center.
The third-seeded Railsplitters (17-3) advance to play second-seeded Wingate in the semifinals Friday morning, while the sixth-seeded Pioneers' season comes to an end with a record of 12-11.
Lincoln Memorial swept Tusculum in doubles play, starting with an 8-2 victory by Joshua Peress and David Segarra over Tashique Kader and Yago Fernandez at flight two. Pepe Batalla and Xavier Marti then teamed up to beat Tusculum's Tomas Kmetko and Fabian Paier 9-7 at flight two, and the Railsplitters grabbed the third point at flight one when Joshua Coulthard and Jake Tuchmann edged Leon Seiz and David Siegle 9-8.
Peress pushed the Railsplitters to the brink of victory with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Kader at flight three of singles, but Kmetko staved off a sweep by downing Coulthard 6-0, 6-4 at flight one. Segarra then closed out the match for LMU with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tusculum's Eduardo Munoz at flight five. Fernandez and Siegle each won a set in their unfinished singles matches for the Pioneers.
In the other quarterfinal match on Thursday, Newberry defeated Anderson 5-2 and will advance to face Queens in Friday's other semifinal contest. The winners of Friday's matches will meet Saturday for the tournament championship.