SALISBURY, N.C. - Facing South Atlantic Conference opponent Catawba on the road, the Lincoln Memorial University men's and women's tennis teams swept the Indians Saturday afternoon. The men improve to 4-7 (3-4 SAC) with the victory and the women are now 5-5 (4-3).

For the second consecutive match, the Railsplitters won the doubles point on the men's side as Iker Moure and Sebastian Colla won 6-4 at number one and Luca Pavan and Thomas Turner won 6-1 in a dominant victory at number three. The triumphs gave LMU the early 1-0 lead, setting the stage for a set of exciting singles matches.

Colla and Pavan both won straight-set singles matches with wins at number three (6-2, 6-4) and number six (6-4, 6-0). Jake Tuchmann joined them in the win column with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win at number four and Thom Hermans posted a 6-3, 7-6 win at number five.

"Sebastian is in the middle of a terrific stretch," head coach Marc Walters said. "He and Iker won at number one doubles again to clinch the early point, and he followed it up with a dominant win in singles to clinch the match."

"Jake turned it around after a tough loss last time out," Walters continued. "That was the spark we needed to get control of the match."

On the women's side, Kristin Vogel and Samantha Hogan won 6-2 at number three doubles, but the team dropped the other two matches to fall behind 1-0. Similarly to the men, numbers 3-6 stepped up and provided the necessary victories in the match.

Valentina Ascarrunz continued her strong play as of late with a 6-4, 6-2 win at number three while Vogel posted a dominant effort with a 6-0, 6-1 victory at number four. Amanda Dahlstrom also triumphed 6-1, 6-0 at number five and Claudia Rodriguez cruised 6-0, 6-0 at number six.

"Valentina had another outstanding day," Walters commented. "She handled a really good player and made adjustments to win the match. On the doubles side, we came out flat. We can't come out and drop the doubles point while expecting to win matches in the league. We have too much talent and practice too much to allow other teams to take it to us."

The teams will look to continue their recent winning streak as they travel to UVA Wise for another road match this coming Tuesday, Mar. 23. The match is slated to start at 3:30 p.m.