The Tusculum College men's tennis team won its third South Atlantic Conference championship in the last four years with a 6-3 victory over Queens University of Charlotte Friday afternoon in the completion of a match that was suspended on March 5 due to rain.

The Pioneers (19-2 overall, 10-1 SAC) claimed their second straight league title and sixth in school history, with other championships in 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2013 in addition to 2015. Tusculum will be the number-one seed in the SAC Men's Tennis Tournament, which begins Thursday in Brevard, North Carolina and will conclude Saturday with the championship match.

Tusculum entered Friday's action having won all three doubles points from Queens in action on March 5. Tim Stierle and Jonas Winkelmann beat Per-Erik Soler and Andor Vas 8-6 at flight one, Tashique Kader and Leon Seiz downed Jules Athalis and Giovanni Setti 8-6 at flight two, and Eduardo Munoz teamed with Toby de Klerk to beat Jordan Owens and Will Roberson 9-7 at flight three.

In singles, the Royals (10-3, 8-2 SAC) picked up a point at flight one as Soler beat Munoz 6-2, 6-4. The second and third singles matches were heading to a third set at the time of interruption, with flights four through six yet to be started.

Stierle gave the Pioneers a 4-1 lead as he claimed the third set from Athalis by a score of 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. After Vas defeated Winkelmann in three sets at flight three, Kader came through with the clinching point for the Pioneers as he won 7-5, 6-1 over Giovanni Setti at flight four. Seiz also earned a win for the Pioneers as he earned a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Jordan Owens at flight five.

Tusculum closes its regular season on Sunday at 2 p.m. with a non-conference match at NAIA top-ranked Georgia Gwinnett.

- TC -