NEWBERRY, S.C. - Intent on defending their No. 9 ranking in the ITA Southeast Region, the Newberry College men's tennis team rocked Brevard College Thursday by an 8-1 count. Having won back-to-back matches for the first time this season, Newberry now stands 4-4 overall. Brevard falls to 1-5 with the defeat.

The Indians showed their muscle early and often, taking all three doubles matches by wide margins.

Daryl Van Vuuren (Durban, South Africa) and Jeremy Smith (Durban, South Africa) took the top flight match over Cole Altizer and Jared Fisher, 8-5, and one match later Maxim Sukharev (Vilnius, Lithuania) and Lucas Mattos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) scored a W over Konstantin Saveylev and Andrew Thompson, 8-3. The Indians finished doubles play with a commanding 3-0 lead after Felipe Sobrinho (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Mikael Jurkovic swept Shane Apps and Sam Johnston, 8-0.

Brevard's only point came in No. 1 singles, where Sukharev allowed Thompson to claim the victory via walkover. But Newberry didn't allow the concession of a point to slow their momentum. Van Vuuren picked up his first singles win of the year with a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing of Savelyev, followed by fellow South African Smith doing a number on Fisher, 6-4, 6-4.

The Indians wrapped up the match by taking each of the lower-flight singles matches convincingly. Mattos sent Altizer to the showers with a 6-2, 4-0 (retired) win, while Sobrinho creamed Apps, 6-0, 7-5. Jurkovic ended the match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Johnston. Newberry also claimed an exhibition match, as Scott Busbee (Columbia, S.C.) doubled up Ben Allweil, 8-4.

"Our doubles teams gave another great performance that led to a win," said victorious coach Juan Pablo Favero. "On the singles side of things, I'm happy that Daryl (Van Vuuren) was able to win his match. We have a lot of momentum right now, and we hope to carry that over to Saturday's match."

The Indians host Erskine College Saturday at noon.