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.