NEWBERRY, S.C. - Hosting the conference leaders, the Wolves played their toughest but could not slow down No. 39 Wingate on Saturday, falling by an 8-1 score.

With the loss, the Wolves slip to 3-12 and 2-4 in the South Atlantic Conference while the Bulldogs keep their SAC record untarnished at 7-0 and rise to 13-3 overall.

Vinicius Botelho (Fortaleza, Brazil) and David Sons (Lexington, S.C.) were up first in the doubles flights against Drew Owen and Flavio Rathsam. The Newberry duo could only take three games from the Wingate pair in an 8-3 defeat. Michael Saunders (Christchurch, New Zealand) and Mohammed Chakir (Rabat, Morocco) kept it a close match against Matt Lichtenstein and Braeden Patchell, but could not produce enough offense to even the score as they fell 8-5.

Jeffrey Kiser (Newberry, S.C.) and James Bethea (Newberry, S.C.) were involved in the closest match of the day with Fernando Montemurro and Greg Machado. The duo fell just short of the Wingate competitors in the end though, losing by an 8-6 tally.

To begin the singles flights, Saunders had the tall task of trying to take out the No. 12 player in the region in Lichtenstein. Saunders had the Bulldog on the ropes in the first set, but could not hold on and fell 7-5 in the first set before dropping the second set 6-1.

Botelho played a near flawless match to earn the win against Owen. The freshman picked up his team leading 12th win in a 6-1, 6-1 romp over the Wingate netter.

Chakir could not build on the victory by Botelho, dropping his match against Rathsam 6-2, 6-2 while Michael Woolard (Lexington, S.C.) lost 6-0, 6-3 to Patchell. Sons dropped a 6-1, 6-0 match to Montemurro before Kiser lost 6-0, 6-2 to Ryan Forbes to conclude the match.

The Wolves will compete tomorrow (Sunday, April 3) in one of their final nonconference tilts of the season as the welcome Young Harris to Newberry. The Wolves and Mountain Lions are set to do battle at 1 p.m.