Spring Break
Tennis: Tournament success just out of reach
Neil Schneider / Staff Reporter
Issue date: 4/20/09 Section: Sports
|
The Eastern men, seeded sixth, lost to No. 3 Tennessee Tech 4-1, while the No. 6 seeded women lost 4-0 to No. 3 Murray State.
The lone winner on the men's side was senior Jordan Nestrud, who defeated Josh Girling at No. 2 singles in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 to finish the season with a record of 10-10.
Senior Vuk Milicevic was unable to finish his No. 3 singles match with Alex Chen as the singles team results had already been decided.
Milicevic lost the first set of the match but was ahead 6-5 when the match was stopped.
Even though Milicevic was unable to finish his match, he felt he was playing fairly well.
"I was pretty happy with my performance in singles and doubles competitions," Milicevic said. "It was good to get back on the court with Jordan in the doubles match, but unfortunately, we couldn't come away with the win."
Milicevic and Nestrud's No. 1 doubles match against TTU's Josh Girling and Dean O'Brien was also stopped as the doubles point had already been decided.
Eastern head tennis coach John Blackburn said despite the stoppage, he was impressed with the way Nestrud and Milicevic played.
"They were in a very tightly contested match, but they were competing really well before the match was stopped," Blackburn said.
In the Panthers' first meeting with TTU on April 5, Eastern (10-13) lost 7-0.
Blackburn said he was pleased with the way the Panthers competed against the Golden Eagles.
"I think we really did a good job in competing in the singles matches, even though we came up short in some of the matches," Blackburn said. "I think the guys put up a good fight against a really good team."
On the women's side, junior Hayley Homburg lost in No. 2 singles to Murray State's Angela McGahee.
Freshman Shannon Brooks was defeated in straight sets by Alexis Webb 6-2, 6-2.
"We did a good job of competing really hard, but you have got to give credit to Murray State," Blackburn said.
Eastern had to forfeit No. 6 singles because the Panthers (8-13) did not have enough healthy players.
The Panthers also lost the doubles point. Murray State won at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, thanks in part to a forfeit at No. 3 doubles because the Panthers only had five players.
Neil Schneider can be reached at 581-7944 or at jnschneider@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