DUE WEST, S.C. - The Newberry College men's tennis team took their first loss in the month of April when they fell to the Erskine Flying Fleet on the road Thursday, 7-2.

The scarlet and gray earned only one win in both singles and doubles play. NC's doubles win came from Lucas Mattos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Maxim Sukharev (Vilnius, Lithuania) who defeated Ryan Miller and Angelo Ciarrocchi (8-2). Felipe Sobrinho (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) earned his team's only singles win by defeating Ciarrocchi (6-1, 6-1).

In doubles play, Sobrinho and Jeremy Smith (Durban, South Africa) fell for the first time in eight matches to Caleb Barnes and Fabio Ciarrocchi (9-7) while Mark Boswell (Piedmont, S.C.) and Pavle Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia) were defeated by Nermajan Brcan and Vincent Chauvette (8-1).

In other singles action, Sukharev was dropped by Brcan (4-6, 6-3, 6-4); Mattos lost to Barnes (6-3, 1-6, 6-0); Smith was defeated Fabio Ciarrocchi (6-2, 6-3); Boswell was swept by Chauvette (6-0, 6-0); and Popovic lost to Miller (6-4, 6-4).

The loss puts the Newberry College men's tennis team at 4-7 overall this season. They will play their first home match since March 21 this Tuesday against Catawba at 2 pm. Erskine (5-13) will return to the courts tomorrow at home against Queens College at 11 am.