GREENWOOD, S.C. - The Newberry College men's tennis team opened its 2009 season on Tuesday but lost to the No. 12 Lander Bearcats, 8-1.

The strongest showing of the day for the scarlet and gray came from Lucas Mattos (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil) who claimed his teams only win. He defeated Lander's Maxim Desmars by the score of 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Felipe Sobrinho (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil) also performed well and pushed Carlos Marques to a third set. In the end, he would fall by the score of 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

Newberry fell in the rest of their singles matches including Maxim Sukharev's (Vilnius, Lithuania) loss to Damien Cordesse (6-1 6-2), Jeremy Smith's (Durban, South Africa) loss to Sheharyar Wali (6-1 6-3), Pavle Popovic's loss to Gary Bertoldo (6-1 6-4), and Mark Boswell's (Piedmont, S.C.) loss to Michael Fedoseyev (6-0 6-1)

Newberry was swept in doubles play, but Smith and Sobrinho put up a great fight against Cordesse and Fedoseyev in their 8-6 loss. Sukharev and Mattos fell to Wali and T.C. Walle (8-3), while Popovic and Boswell fell to Desmars and Juan Manrique (8-1)

The Newberry College men's tennis team now stands at 0-1 overall. They will return to action this Saturday to take on Georgia College and State on the road at 1 p.m. No. 12 Lander (2-1) will also compete on the road this Saturday against North Greenville at 10:30 a.m.