NEWBERRY, S.C. - Lucas Mattos won his second consecutive singles match, but the Newberry College men's tennis team fell Wednesday to No. 20 Georgia College & State University, 8-1. The win is the second in a row for GCSU, which improves to 6-2 on the season. The Indians fell to 2-4 with the defeat.

Doubles action started with the regionally-ranked team of Erick Siqueira and Francis Yoshimoto winning an 8-2 decision over Daryl Van Vuuren (Durban, South, Africa) and Jeremy Smith (Durban, South Africa). Second flight doubles was a barnburner, however, as Maxim Sukharev (Vilnius, Lithuania) and Lucas Mattos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) took Matt Belenchia and Joao Casagrande to the wire before falling 9-8 (11-9). The score is the closest of the season for either Indian tennis squad in doubles play. The third flight was another Bobcat win, as Max Beliankou and Giovanne Nucci downed Felipe Sobrinho (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Mikael Jurkovic (Atlanta, Ga.) 8-2.

Newberry dropped the first three singles matches, as No. 13 Siqueira beat Sukharev 6-2, 6-0, Yoshimoto clipped Van Vuuren 6-2, 6-1, and Beliankou dropped Smith 6-3, 7-5. But Newberry got on the board in the fourth flight, as Mattos outlasted Nucci 6-3, 0-6, 10-4. The win is the second in a row for the Brazilian, who evens his individual record to 3-3 in 2008.

Georgia College & State took the final two points, with Casagrande squeaking past Sobrinho 6-3, 2-6, 10-4 and Belenchia defeating Jurkovic 6-1, 6-3.

The Indians return to South Atlantic Conference play Friday against Mars Hill College.