The Tusculum College men's tennis team equaled the best start in program history with a 7-2 victory over 47th-ranked Northwood University Tuesday morning in a non-conference match.

The 49th-ranked Pioneers (9-0) matched the start of last year's team, which went on to finish with an 18-2 record and advance to the SAC Tournament championship match. Tusculum won four out of six singles matches, including three via tiebeaker, and swept doubles against the Timberwolves (1-3).

In singles, Tim Stierle was a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Sebastian Eguez at flight one, Tashique Kader downed Daniel Haas 4-6, 6-1, (10-2 tiebreaker) at flight four, Leon Seiz bested Lorenz Bialkowski 6-4, 5-7, (14-12 tiebreaker) at flight five, and Toby deKlerk was a 1-6, 6-1, (10-1 tiebreaker) winner at flight six over David Reinauer.

In doubles play, Stierle teamed with Jonas Winkelmann for an 8-5 win at flight one over Eguez and Woody, giving Winkelmann his 31st consecutive doubles win dating to the 2014-15 season. Kader and Seiz beat Konstantin Zhukov and Bialkowski 8-1 at flight two, and de Klerk teamed with Eduardo Munoz to win 8-0 over Haas and Reinauer at flight three.

The Pioneers will look for the first 10-0 start in program history on Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. against Kutztown in the team's final Spring Break match at Hilton Head.