BREVARD, N.C. – Senior Devin Horton earned a match-clinching win in number-three singles to give the four-seed Brevard College men's tennis team (5-12) a 5-3 victory over the five-seed Southern Virginia University (2-12) in the first round of the 2024 USA South Conference Men's Tennis Tournament on Monday morning at the McCoy Tennis Complex.
 
In the third-consecutive postseason appearance for the BC men's tennis program, the Tornados have earned the program's first playoff victory since the South Atlantic Conference Tournament in the NCAA DII era in the 2010-11 season. Monday's win marks the first postseason win for Brevard men's tennis in the NCAA DIII era.
 
After the Tornados earned a trio of critical doubles victories to start off Monday's match, Bryce Bernitt gave the Tornados a 4-0 match lead with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph in number-two singles play over Jeffrey Purcell. The Knights responded with victories in numbers four-through-six singles, drawing SVU within a point of the Tornados, 4-3.
 
With a tightly-contested top-flight singles match between Hayden LeBlanc and SVU's Abram Robbins underway, Horton secured the match win with a three-set thriller over Traejen Kingston. Horton, a senior from Hendersonville, North Carolina, fell in the first set 6-1, but stormed back with a 6-1 second-set victory, sending the match to a winner-take-all third set. Horton was able to win the third set in dominant fashion, 6-2, sending the Tornados to the Semifinals of the USA South Men's Tennis Tournament.
 
Battling back from an early 5-1 deficit In number-three doubles, BC duo Peter Bresko and James Srsich came back and won 8-6, kickstarting an undefeated doubles mark for the Tornados as LeBlanc and Bernitt paired up for an 8-6 win in number-one doubles while Horton and Noah Lewis pulled out an 8-6 victory in the number-two doubles line.
 
The Tornados will now set their sights on Rocky Mount, North Carolina for the Semifinals of the USA South Tournament, hosted by top-seeded North Carolina Wesleyan University. The Tornados will face off against the Battling Bishops on Friday.
 
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