NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Newberry College men's tennis team scored an important 5-4 victory Friday afternoon over the Carson-Newman College Eagles. The win insures that the Indians (8-5, 5-1 SAC) will host a South Atlantic Conference Quarterfinal match Monday at the Cannon Tennis Courts.

With the victory, the Indians set a school record for most South Atlantic Conference wins in a season. Newberry won four conference matches in the 2007 season and with a win Sunday, the Indians will clinch their highest SAC finish ever.

Newberry took the lead after winning the first two doubles matches and never looked back. No. 1 duo Daryl Van Vuuren (Durban, South Africa) and Jeremy Smith (Durban, South Africa) raced past Preston Sneed and Jack Harvie, 8-2, to start the Indians on the right foot. Lucas Mattos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Maxim Sukharev (Vilnius, Lithuania) followed with an 8-6 win over Brazilian duo Giuseppe Schwarz and Adriano Kira.

The Eagles did get on the board in the No. 3 doubles when Chris Acker and Trent Slagle downed Newberry's Felipe Sobrinho (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Mikael Jurkovic (Atlanta, Ga.), 8-4.

The Eagles started the singles portion of the match by tying the overall score at 2-2. Playing top flight singles for the first time all year, Van Vuuren was tripped up, 6-7, (7-5), 6-1, 6-3, by Schwarz. The win for Schwarz avenges the 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 loss the Brazilian took against Van Vuuren on March 30, 2007, but it could not stop the Indians from victory on Friday.

Sukharev put the Indians back on top with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 comeback victory over Kira, the Lithuanian's first singles win since February 8. But Carson-Newman's Sneed re-tied the match with a 6-7 (7-2), 7-5, 7-5 triumph over Smith.

The Indians powered to victory by taking wins at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots. Mattos won his ninth straight singles match, 6-1, 6-2 over Harvie, and Sobrinho clinched the win with a 6-1, 6-2 shellacking of Acker.

The Eagles (6-4, 3-4 SAC) did take the final point, as Slagle won a close one over Jurkovic at the No. 6 spot, 7-5, 6-4.

The Indians close out the 2008 regular season on the road Saturday, as they play the Mars Hill College Lions. With both teams sitting 5-1 in conference play, the winner will clinch the second seed in the SAC Tournament, which starts Monday.