SALISBURY, N.C. - The Newberry men's tennis team took four singles matches from South Atlantic Conference foe Catawba but could not close out the Catawba Indians, narrowly losing by a 5-4 margin.

Newberry (1-5, 0-2 SAC) nearly earned the team's first SAC win of the season but lost three doubles matches to Catawba (7-5, 1-2) to seal the outcome.

In singles play, Maxim Sukharev (Vilnius, Lithuana) won a first-flight match against Alex Macdonald, 6-4, 6-0. Lucas Mattos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) took down Thomas Mitchell, 6-2, 7-5, and Jeremy Smith (Durban, S.C.) followed up with a 6-4, 6-2, victory over Tom McCormack. Christian Ranguelov (Vienna, Austria) gave Newberry its fourth singles win with smooth play against Shaun Bridgewater, 6-1, 6-2. In Newberry's other singles matches, Pavle Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia) nearly took the first set but fell to Uri Yarkoni, 7-5, 6-1, and Scott Busbee dropped a match to Cyle Petersen, 6-0, 6-0.

Unfortunately for the scarlet and gray, doubles did not go the way of the visiting team. The team of Sukharev and Mattos lost a close match to Macdonald and Mitchell, 8-6; Smith and Ranguelov fell to 8-5; and Samuel Cartin (Irmo, S.C.) and Busbee came up short against Petersen and Eldridge, 8-0.

Newberry will next travel to USC Lancaster for an exhibition match on Wednesday, March 17. The match is slated for 3 p.m.