MARS HILL, N.C. --- For the second straight day, Tusculum College wound up on the short end of a 5-4 score as Mars Hill College earned the victory in South Atlantic Conference men's tennis action Tuesday afternoon.

The Pioneers (6-9, 2-4 SAC) were coming off a 5-4 setback to Lincoln Memorial less than 20 hours earlier, but put up a strong battle with the Lions (4-6, 2-2 SAC), splitting six singles matches but dropping two out of three in doubles.

In doubles play, the Pioneers earned a point at flight two when Steven Lin and Oliver Smith defeated Guilherme Lima and Steven Stankovic 9-7. At flight one, the Lions' Lucas Simm and Enrico Patriarca were winners by an 8-6 score over Tony Bujana and Luis Zamora, while Carlos Oyaga and Brad Bassinger defeated Gui Carvalho and Drew Kiser at flight three, 9-8.

The Lions added to their lead with wins at the top two flights, as Simm defeated Bujana 6-1, 6-2 at flight one and Patriarca downed Zamora 6-0, 6-3 at flight two. Lin was a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Lima at flight three to cut the Mars Hill lead to 4-2.

Carvalho gained a 6-4, 6-3 victory at flight five over Stankovic, but Oyaga sealed the match with a 6-3, 6-3 victory at flight four over Smith. Kiser salvaged a fourth point for the Pioneers with a 10-8 tiebreaker win over Bassinger at flight six, after splitting the first two sets 6-2 and 5-7.

Tusculum is back in action on Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Nichols Tennis Complex with a non-conference match against North Georgia.

- TC -