Spring Break
Men's Tennis: Panthers escape with win on the road
Intensity, focus lead to win in Peoria
Kevin Murphy/Sports Editor
Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: Sports
|
The Panthers defeated Bradley 4-3 at the Clubs at River City in Peoria.
The Panthers (6-4) have won two of their last three matches.
Eastern won at No. 1 doubles and No. 2 doubles to earn the doubles point.
Eastern also picked up three singles tennis victories.
Senior Vuk Milicevic and senior Jordan Nestrud won at No.1 doubles 9-8 against Bradley senior Milos Romic and Bradley junior Callen Fraychineaud.
"They had a game plan," said Eastern head coach John Blackburn. "I wasn't nervous watching the end of their match. They had the confidence."
Blackburn said the duo was strong in the tie-breaker and thinks they won five of the first seven tie-breaker points.
Eastern junior Jeff Rutherford and freshman Matyas Hilgert won at No. 2 doubles 8-5 against the Braves (5-5). Rutherford and Hilgert defeated Bradley junior Richard Robertson and Bradley freshman Mitch Osborne.
Eastern freshman Jamie Firth and freshman Drew Grimaldi lost at No. 3 doubles 8-3 to Bradley senior Michel Macara-chvili and Bradley senior Evgeny Samoylov.
Nestrud, Milicevic and Firth all picked up singles victories with two three-set match victories.
Nestrud defeated Fraychineaud 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 singles. Milicevic defeated Samoylov 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3 singles.
"They really battled," Blackburn said. "It ended up being in the stronger players in the end. I think we showed good mental toughness."
Firth defeated Robertson 7-6 (4), 6-1 at No. 5 singles.
"Jamie Firth played his best singles match of the year," Firth said. "He did a great job with his focus and executing shots and played with a lot of intensity and confidence in key moments."
Rutherford lost to Romic 7-6 (6), 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Hilgert lost to Macara-chvili 6-2, 6-3 at No. 4 singles. Grimaldi lost to Osborne 6-2, 6-3 at No. 6 singles.
The Panthers return to action against Butler at 1 p.m. Friday in Indianapolis.
"We need to improve our doubles," Blackburn said. "We can be more intense. Once we can get the lead, we need to close out."
Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment on this story