CLINTON, S.C. - The top seed Tusculum College Pioneers defeated #3 seeded Presbyterian College Blue Hose 5-0 in today's Food Lion/SAC Men's Tennis Tournament championship match at Callaway Courts on the campus of Presbyterian College.

The nationally ranked Pioneers (T-40 in NCAA Division II), win their first SAC Tournament title in men's tennis to go along with the SAC regular season title they won earlier this season. Tusculum improves to 18-1 on the season while Presbyterian drops to 14-11.

The Pioneers took control early with a 3-0 lead after doubles. All three doubles matches were closely contested including Tusculum College's All-SAC standouts junior Johnanton Dunstan (Yatala Vale, Australia) and freshman Jesse Puckerin (Sudbury, Ontario, Canada) defeat of PC's All-SAC duo of senior Sam Small (Greenville, S.C.) and junior Ryan Case (Cumming, Ga.) 8-6 at the #1 doubles flight. PC had a chance to gain a point at #2 doubles, but TC's team of freshman Roberto Robles (Bogota, Columbia) and junior Ben Leahy (Brisbane, Australia) came-from-behind to defeat PC's All-SAC standout sophomore Graeme Lauriston (Mission Beach, Australia) and junior Wally Frye (Spartanburg, S.C.) 9-7.

In singles, the Pioneers went ahead 4-0 in the match after Robles defeated Case 6-0, 6-1 at #1 singles. TC's freshman Wes Lehman (Wichita Falls, TX) finished off the match for the Pioneers with a 6-2, 6-3 win over PC's All-SAC junior Walter Constantine (Atlanta, Ga.).

MEN'S TENNIS BOX SCORE - #1 TUSCULUM 5, #3 PRESBYTERIAN 0

SINGLES
#1 Roberto Robles (TC) def. Ryan Case 6-0, 6-1
#2 Johnaton Dunstan (TC) vs. Graeme Lauriston DNF
#3 Jesse Puckerin (TC) vs. Sam Small DNF
#4 Ben Leahy (TC) vs. Wally Frye DNF
#5 Alejandro Rojas (TC) vs. Alistair Morgan DNF
#6 Wes Lehman (TC) def. Walter Constantine 6-2, 6-3

DOUBLES
#1 Dunstan/Puckerin (TC) def. Small/Case 8-6
#2 Robles/Leahy (TC) def. Lauriston/Frye 9-7
#3 Rojas/Lehman (TC) def. Morgan/Constantine 8-6

RECORDS: Tusculum 18-1; Presbyterian 14-11

Both teams will advance to next weekend's NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Southeast Regional Tournaments. Tusculum travels to Winter Park, Fla to take on Eckerd College on Friday, May 3 and Presbyterian travels to Lakeland, Fla to take on host Florida Southern College