ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Carlos Garcia of Tusculum College has been named the South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week announced league officials Tuesday. This marks the second time this year Garcia has earned this honor.

Garcia went 3-0 in singles and doubles play last week to lead the No. 35 Pioneers to three victories. During TC's 3-0 week, the Pioneers also posted two critical South Atlantic Conference wins to take over sole possession of first place in the league.

Garcia, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, opened the week with a straight set win over Mars Hill's Ugras Taylan Batuk, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3 singles. He and No. 1 doubles partner Sergio Espinosa preceded that with an 8-4 win over the MHC duo of John Allen and Koeche Smith.

In Tusculum's 6-0 win over North Greenville, Garcia defeated William Ho 6-3, 6-1 to go along with an 8-0 win in doubles over Tomas Kurhajec and Jacob Rogers.

Garcia accounted for a pair of important points in TC's 6-3 come-from-behind win at Newberry. In doubles, he and Espinosa won 8-6 over the team of Jeremy Smith and Daryl Van Vuuren for TC's only doubles point of the afternoon. Down 2-1, Garcia and the Pioneers won the top three singles matches, including his 6-1, 4-0 (ret.) win over Smith.

Garcia improves his singles record to 13-1 this season (5-0 in SAC) and has won his last 10 singles matches.

The SAC Men's Tennis Player of the Week is selected by a vote of the league's sports information directors.

The Pioneers (15-1, 5-0 SAC) return to action on Friday when they host Catawba for a 1:30 p.m. match at the Nichols Tennis Complex.

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