The Tusculum College Women's tennis team opened its South Atlantic Conference schedule with a 5-4 win at Anderson University Sunday afternoon.

The Pioneers (5-1, 1-0 SAC) avenged a loss to the Trojans (1-4, 1-2 SAC) in last year's Food Lion SAC Tournament semifinals by winning two of the final three singles matches. It is the third straight year that the teams have played to a 5-4 score in their regular-season meeting, with the Pioneers winning the last two.

With the match tied 3-3 heading into the final round of singles, the Pioneers earned wins from Kate Hutchinson at flight four and Adrienne Kaye at flight five to clinch the win.

Tusculum raced out to a 3-0 lead in doubles by identical scores of 8-3, as Hutchinson teamed with Kealee Heffner for a win over Avery OWens and Karen Ching at flight one, Kaye partnered with Mills at flight two for the victory over Lindsay Gregory and Alexandra Ebner, and Amanda Sumner and Emily Waters stayed unbeaten at 5-0 by beating Nikkola Wichenko and Rebecca Bruning at flight three.

In singles, the Trojans came back to knot the score at 3-3 with wins from Ching, Owens and Bruning at the top three flight. However, Hutchinson defeated Ebner 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 at flight four and Kaye beat Gregory 7-6, 6-1 at flight five to clinch the win. Wichenko claimed the other singles point for Anderson with a win at flight six.

The Pioneers will be back in action Tuesday afternoon when they host Milligan at 1 p.m. at the Nichols Tennis Complex.