NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Newberry College men's tennis team nearly earned its second straight South Atlantic Conference win at home against Tusculum, but the Pioneers eked out a narrow victory, 5-4.

Newberry moves to 1-6 in South Atlantic Conference play and 2-11 overall. Tusculum improves to 14-3 overall and 6-2 in the SAC.

Newberry took three singles matches from Tusculum but the wins would not prove to be enough. Maxim Sukharev (Vilnius, Lithuania) picked up his seventh victory of the season and fourth straight after topping Henrique Rodrigues at the first flight, 6-1, 6-3. Lucas Mattos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) also earned a win against Steven Lin, 6-2, 7-5. Newberry's final singles win came from Christian Ranguelov (Vienna, Austria), who battled through three sets for a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Olvier Smith. Ranguelov improved his singles record to 11-2 and his win streak to 10 with the outcome. In other singles matches, Pavle Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia) fell to Luis Zamora, 6-1, 7-5, Scott Busbee (Columbia, S.C.) lost to Drew Kiser, 6-0, 6-1, and Samuel Cartin (Irmo, S.C.) came up short against Gui Carvalho, 6-0, 6-0.

In doubles action, Popovic and Ranguelov fought off Lin and Smith, 8-6, to give the scarlet and gray their first tally in the win column. Unfortunately for Newberry, Sukharev and Mattos lost one of the closest matches of the season with a 9-8 (10-8) heartbreaker to Rodrigues and Zamora. The team of Busbee and Cartin also fell to Kiser and Carvalho, 8-3.

Newberry stays in the SAC for its next match, a road tilt against Mars Hill on Monday, April 12. The match is slated to begin at 3 p.m.