FLORENCE, S.C. – The Newberry College men's tennis team (5-1, 0-0 South Atlantic Conference) split their Saturday matches at the Florence Invitational, dropping the morning matchup with the No. 13 Lander Bearcats by a final score of 4-0 but defeated the Lenoir Rhyne Bears in their afternoon matchup 4-2 to place third in the tournament to claim third place in the tournament. 

Once again, due to the format of the tournament and restrictions due to court conditions, the singles points were played first and the double's point was only played if necessary. 

Marcel Schomburg (Bingen, Germany) dropped his match at the two in consecutive sets: 2-6, 2-6. Joshua Fritz (Waiblingen, German) did likewise, losing in two sets: 1-6, 2-6. Lawrence Friedland (Cary, N.C.) dropped the match at the five in two sets: 2-6, 0-6. With three points already secured play was suspended in the one and four matches when Lucas Mruk (Sugar Hill, Ga.) lost his match at the six: 1-6, 0-6.

With the match secured for the Bearcats, the double's point was not played.

Their second matchup came against a familiar foe, the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears.

Laurenz Grabia (Altdorf, Germany) secured an impressive 6-3, 6-0 victory at the three. Fritz notched a tight, two-set victory: 7-5, 7-6. Mruk, much like Grabia, secured an easy victory at the six: 6-3, 6-1.

In the double's portion of competition, Mateo Bivol and Fritz coasted to a 6-1 victory at the one, putting the Wolves one doubles win away from securing the match. Tal Cohen (Sydney, Australia) and Friedland notched a close, 7-6, victory giving the Wolves the match against the Bears 4-2.

"Great weekend from our men's team," reflected head coach Elias Fernandez on his team's continuing improvement early in the season. "The guys competed hard and finishing third this weekend is a big boost for the program!"

The Wolves return to the Oakland Tennis Center on Tues. Feb. 14 as they host Georgia College. Play is set to begin at 2 P.M.