2004 Food Lion SAC Men's Tennis Championship Final: Presbyterian Captures Title With 5-1 Win Over Tusculum
April 23, 2004

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ROCK HILL, S.C. - The No. 1 seed and #19th-ranked Presbyterian College Blue Hose defeated the No. 2 seed Tusculum College Pioneers 5-1 in the finals of the 2004 Food Lion/South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Championships held at the Memorial Courts on the campus of Winthrop University Saturday morning. The Blue Hose claim their fourth tournament title and first since 2000.

Presbyterian took an early 2-1 lead after doubles as senior Graeme Lauriston (Mission Beach, Australia) and freshman Paul Ratchford (Delta, British Columbia) defeated TC's freshman Pedro Galavis (Caracas, Venezuela) and sophomore Sergio Pantoja (Tarija, Bolivia) 8-2 at #1 doubles and PC's junior Alistair Morgan (Cheltenham, England) and sophomore Nick Osborne (Hutton Rudby, England) defeated TC's freshmen Michael Hallford (Marietta, Ga.) and Julien Jacob (Vancover, British Columbia) 8-4 at #3 doubles.

TC's juniors Roberto Robles (Bogota, Columbia) and Jesse Puckerin (Sudbury, Ontario) defeated PC's sophomore duo of Hector Rincon (London, England) and Kshitj Dwivedi (New Delhi, India) 9-7 at #2 doubles to pick up their first point of the match.

In singles, PC's Lauriston defeated TC's Hallford 6-2, 6-0 at #4 singles and Ratchford defeated TC's Galavis 6-0, 6-0 at #2 singles to give PC an 4-1 advantage. The Blue Hose clinched the match after PC's Rincon defeated Robles 6-1, 6-2 at #1singles.

Presbyterian improves to 16-3 on the season and wins their first SAC Tournament title since the 2000 season. Tusculum drops to 16-7 on the season. Both teams will return to action on May 5- 7 as they participate in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regionals.

Records: Presbyterian College 16-3; Tusculum College 16-7