GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — The Tusculum University men’s tennis team will face Catawba College in the quarterfinal round of the 2025 South Atlantic Conference Championship tournament.
The quarterfinals will be played Wednesday, April 16, followed by semifinals on Thursday, April 17 and the championship match on Friday, April 18. All matches will be played at 2 p.m. at the Palmetto Tennis Center in Sumter, South Carolina.
The Pioneers (8-11, 6-6 SAC) earned the eighth and final seed in the tournament field and will face the top-seeded Indians (17-2, 12-0 SAC) for the second time in five days. Catawba defeated Tusculum 4-0 on Saturday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Tusculum is making its 13th straight appearance in the SAC Tournament, having won the championship in 2002, 2008 and 2021. The Pioneers are 3-1 all-time against Catawba in the conference tourney, including a 3-0 mark in quarterfinals.
Seniors Nathan Matsuguma (Tokyo, Japan) and Miles Ray (Cheltenham, England) shared the team lead in singles wins for the Pioneers with nine during the spring. Matsuguma was 6-2 in conference play while playing at each of the top four flights, with a 5-3 overall record at flight three. Ray had a 5-4 mark in league play with most of his matches at flights four and five.
Sophomore Anton Krondell (Helsingborg, Sweden) and Rens Verhaar (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) played primarily at the top two singles flights for the Pioneers. Krondell was 6-7 in dual matches and 4-3 in conference play, going 5-6 combined at flights one and two, while Verhaar had a 3-10 singles record and 0-4 in league.
Junior Will Gee (Faversham, England) was 4-3 in dual matches for the Pioneers and 1-2 in conference play. Freshman Kai Poelchau (Culemborg, The Netherlands) was 3-3 in conference matches and 4-9 overall, with a 3-7 record at flights five and six.
In doubles, Gee and Verhaar were 3-10 at flight one and 2-7 in SAC matches, with Krondell and Ray going 6-7 at flight two and 5-6 in conference action. At flight three, Matsuguma and freshman Angelos Avgeris (Thessaloniki, Greece) enter the postseason with 10 straight wins and a 13-3 overall record, including 8-1 in conference play.
Catawba has been led by freshmen Agustin Mastri (11-2), Luca Bergonzi (10-1), Ryosuke Inagawa (11-1) and Thomas Kostka (14-0) along with sophomore Mateo Berne (8-4). The Indians enter the postseason on a 10-match winning streak and won 10 of their 12 conference victories in a sweep.
The winner of Wednesday’s match between Tusculum and Catawba will face the winner between fourth-seeded Limestone and fifth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne on Thursday. Friday’s championship winner will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Fans can follow the action with live audio coverage courtesy of RadioTennis.com.
