Friday, April 22, 2005

PRESBYTERIAN DEFEATS TUSCULUM 5-2 IN SAC TOURNAMENT FINAL

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- No. 2 seed Presbyterian College took two of three doubles pairings en route to its fifth South Atlantic Conference Tournament championship over top-seeded Tusculum College, a 5-2 decision Friday afternoon at the Nichols Tennis Complex.

PC (13-8) avenges a 5-4 regular season defeat at the hands of the Pioneers (13-6) April 10 in Greeneville to claim its second straight league tournament crown.

The Blue Hose's top doubles pair of Paul Ratchford (Delta, British Columbia, Canada) and Kshitij Dwivedi (New Delhi, India) topped Tusculum's Sergio Espinosa (Caracas, Venezuela) and Carlos Garcia (Caracas, Venezuela) 8-1, and PC's No. 3 tandem of Hector Rincon (London, England) and Zach Glankler (Highland Village, Texas) was victorious over Michael Hallford (Baton Rouge, La.) and Pedro Galavis (Caracas, Venezuela), 8-2.

The Pioneers' lone doubles point came from an 8-3 victory by Roberto Robles (Bogota, Colombia) and Jesse Puckerin (Burlington, Ontario, Canada).

Ratchford and Dwivedi came through for Presbyterian in singles action, winning in straight sets at the No. 2 and No. 3 flights, respectively.  Ratchford, the SAC Player of the Year, downed Puckerin 6-3, 6-3 while Dwivedi won 7-6, 6-2 over Espinosa.  Glankler closed it out with a three-set win at No. 6, rallying a set down for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision.

Both teams await word on a bid for the NCAA Tournament to be held in May.

- SAC -

No. 2 Presbyterian 5, No. 1 Tusculum 2
Singles
1	Hector Rincon (PC) vs. Roberto Robles (TC)	DNF
2	Paul Ratchford (PC) def. Jesse Puckerin	6-3, 6-3
3	Kshitij Dwivedi (PC) def. Sergio Espinosa	7-6, 6-2
4	Nick Osborne (PC) vs. Pedro Galavis (TC)	DNF
5	Carlos Garcia (TC) def. Al Morgan	6-3, 6-3
6	Zach Glankler (PC) def. Michael Hallford	1-6, 6-3, 6-4
Doubles
1	Ratchford/Dwivedi (PC) def. Espinosa/Garcia	8-1
2	Robles/Puckerin (TC) def. Morgan/Osborne	8-3
3	Rincon/Glankler (PC) def. Hallford/Galavis	8-2