CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College men's tennis team ran its Big South Conference start to 2-0 on Tuesday with a solid home victory over the visiting Longwood Lancers at Templeton Tennis Courts, 5-2.
PC improves to 12-2 overall, 2-0 in the Big South and will host Nicholls State as part of a Blue Hose tennis doubleheader against the Colonels. PC women's tennis plays Nicholls at 10 a.m. and the men follow at 3 p.m. Longwood falls to 1-6, 0-1 in league play and play at UNC Asheville on Saturday at 1 p.m.
PC captured the doubles point and picked up four singles wins for the victory.
Sophomore Ryan Miller (Norcross, Ga.) and freshman Ben Kelley (Weaverville, N.C.) kicked off doubles play with a second-flight win over Bharani Sankar and Warren Bryan, 8-4. After the Lancers pulled even at the top flight, the No. 3 pairing of Grayson Mills (Lilburn, Ga.) and Diego Manzanas (Madrid, Spain) improved to 4-0 together and clinched the doubles point by knocking off Steed Johnson and James Fudge, 8-4.
Mills continued his hot play by winning his seventh straight singles match, this time over Daniel Elston at the top flight in a 6-1, 6-1 result. The decision gave PC a 2-0 lead in the dual match.
Manzanas followed at the sixth flight by handling Fudge in a decisive 6-1, 6-0 win before fellow freshman Kelley wrapped up the day at No. 5 in a 6-0, 6-1 defeat of Justin Higgs.
Longwood earned narrow tiebreaker victories from Edward Becker at No. 2 and Warren Bryan at No. 4, but not before Miller grabbed his eight singles win of the season in a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Johnson at the third flight.
Singles competition
1. MILLS, Grayson (PCM) def. ELSTON, Daniel (LW) 6-1, 6-1
2. BECKER, Edward (LW) def. BERGHAUS, Rafael (PCM) 7-5, 4-6, 10-8
3. MILLER, Ryan (PCM) def. JOHNSON, Steed (LW) 6-2, 6-3
4. BRYAN, Warren (LW) def. ROBERTS, Joel (PCM) 7-5, 5-7, 11-9
5. KELLEY, Ben (PCM) def. HIGGS, Justin (LW) 6-0, 6-1
6. MANZANAS, Diego (PCM) def. FUDGE, James (LW) 6-1, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. ELSTON, Daniel/BECKER, Edward (LW) def. BERGHAUS, Rafael/ROBERTS, Joel (PCM) 8-6
2. MILLER, Ryan/KELLEY, Ben (PCM) def. SANKAR, Bharani/BRYAN, Warren (LW) 8-4
3. MILLS, Grayson/MANZANAS, Diego (PCM) def. JOHNSON, Steed/FUDGE, James (LW) 8-4
