WINGATE, N.C. --- The Tusculum women's tennis team saw its season-opening 17-match winning streak come to an end on Monday as Wingate defeated the Pioneers 6-3 in South Atlantic Conference action.
The 13th-ranked Pioneers (17-1, 7-1 SAC) took an early 1-0 lead in doubles, but dropped the next three points and could not recover as the 21st-ranked Bulldogs (16-3, 8-0 SAC) won their 67th consecutive conference match and gained the inside track to their eighth straight SAC regular-season championship.
In doubles, Tusculum earned a point at flight two as Katarina Majorova and Franziska Funke shut out Claudia De Andreis and Sydney Homan by an 8-0 score, but Wingate won the other two matches by identical 8-6 margins.
In singles, the Pioneers fell behind 3-1 but gained a point at flight six as Africa Mota beat Homan 6-4, 6-4. Wingate went ahead 4-2 with a come-from-behind three-set victory, but the Pioneers stayed alive as 68th-ranked Annie McCullough beat Chyi Lee by a 6-2, 6-3 score to cut the deficit to 4-3. The Bulldogs clinched the match with another three-set win, and added a tiebreaker victory in the final singles match to set the score.
Tusculum will look to start a new win streak on Wednesday when the Pioneers visit Carson-Newman for a 3:30 p.m. match with the Eagles.