Two freshmen combined for three of the four wins the men’s tennis team had in a 4-3 loss to Indiana State. Freshmen Vuk Milicevic and Jordan Nestrud were both victorious in their singles matches and also won when they were paired together at No. 3 doubles.

“Jordan and Vuk played really well for us today,” said head coach John Blackburn. “Our goal is always to win but I am still happy about their performances.”

Sophomore Chris Thomas has fully regained his mobility and won his first singles match since going down with a knee injury in the season opener against Marquette almost two months ago.

The first match of the morning was No. 3 doubles match that Milicevic and Nestrud won 8-0. After the Panthers took the first doubles match the Sycamores rebounded with two straight victories and took the doubles point and went up 1-0.

Nestrud kicked off singles play at No. 6 and tied the overall score 1-1 with a straight sets win 6-1, 6-1.

No. 1 and No. 3 singles were the next to be played but both juniors Chuck LeVaque and Brandon Lenfert lost putting the Sycamores back on top 3-1.

The Panthers closed the gap to 3-2 with a win by Chris Thomas 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4 singles. But after a Sean Bush loss at No. 5 singles the Sycamores had sealed the victory earning their fourth point.

The final match of the day was No. 2 singles. Although the Sycamores had already clinched the victory, Milicevic pulled through victorious in three sets 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

The heavily international Sycamores remained perfect at home with the victory over the Panthers that was originally scheduled to be played outdoors at 3 p.m. but was moved indoors at 11 a.m. inside “the Bubble” field house. The Sycamores moved to 7-7 on the season while the Panthers fell to 5-4.

LeVaque lost back-to-back No. 1 singles matches for the first time this season, but his coach is not worried about him.

“No. 1 singles is very difficult because you are playing the best of every team every single day and there is little room for error,” Blackburn said. “Chuck is playing fine, he is just going against some very strong competition right now.”

LeVaque will get a chance to rebound quickly as the Panthers will begin Ohio Valley Conference play this weekend at the Darling Courts with a match-up against Tennessee Tech on Saturday at noon then follow that with a match against Tennessee-Martin on Sunday at 1 p.m.