The Tusculum College Women's tennis team opened up a 3-0 lead in doubles play and went on to defeat the University of Charleston 8-1 in non-conference action at the Spring Break Bash on Tuesday evening.

The start of the match was delayed 10 hours by morning rain, but the Pioneers (8-2) won four of the six singles contests in straight sets to claim the victory over the Golden Eagles (12-6), who were sixth in the most-recent Atlantic Region rankings.

In doubles, Kate Hutchinson and Adrienne Kaye teamed for an 8-2 win over Kelsey Hensley and Madeline Caropino at flight one, Taylor Patterson and Erin Mills downed Ana Maria Pena and Mallika Mali 8-4, and at flight three the Pioneers' Emily Waters and Amanda Sumner came away with an 8-4 victory over Taylor Todd and Marieve Edwards.

Singles play saw Patterson over Pena in an 11-9 tiebreaker after the pair split the first two sets 3-6 and 6-1 at flight two. Mills downed Mali 6-2, 6-4 at flight three and Waters defeated Caropino 6-0, 6-1 at flight four. At flight five, Kaye beat Todd 6-0, 6-1 and Megan Buckmaster rounded out action with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Edwards at flight six.

Tusculum will conclude action at Hilton Head on Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. against West Liberty.