Spring Break
Men's Tennis: Panthers falter in singles against ISU
Neil Schneider/Staff Reporter
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: Sports
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"I thought we played well in doubles competitions," Blackburn said. "In singles, I thought that (freshman) Drew Grimaldi played really well. (Senior) Vuk Milicevic played a really tight first set and then he got on a roll in the second set, which was good for us."
The Panthers (9-9) snapped their two-match winning streak, but still won the doubles points.
Junior Jeff Rutherford and freshman Jamie Firth (3-0) were able to defeat the Indiana State's Milos Pavlovic and Blake Douglas at No. 2 singles 8-5.
Milicevic and senior Jordan Nestrud (13-1) defeated Jon Sigurdsson and Josh Smith at No.1 doubles, 8-5.
Milicevic said he was especially glad to continue the winning steak that Nestrud and himself have developed.
"I thought I played pretty well in both singles and doubles matches," Milicevic said. "We came out a little slow in our doubles match, but once we got going things began to run smoothly. We were able to get another win for our team, which is always a pretty positive thing to take out of a match."
The Sycamores (2-12) won four of the six singles matches to win.
Milicevic (12-6) said it was a positive for himself to be able to get down early and eventually come back and finish the match strong, winning 7-5, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.
Grimaldi (11-7) was the only other Panther to pick up a singles victory.
He defeated ISU's Michael Wenham at No. 5 singes 6-4, 6-2.
Rutherford said despite the outcome, the Panthers competed at a high level.
"We are definitely improving as a team. We are becoming a little more match tough," Rutherford said. " I felt that we continued to fight even at the end of matches when things weren't going our way."
Following Wednesday's match, the Eastern tennis squads will travel to Tennessee for weekend matches against Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.
Neil Schneider can be reached at 581-7944 or at jnschneider@eiu.edu.
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