The men’s and women’s tennis teams opened up their Ohio Valley Conference schedule between snow flurries, howling wind, and winter-like temperatures. The conditions were less than ideal and so were the final results as the men and women lost both of their weekend matches.

The men fell to 5-6 on the season with a 4-1 loss to Tennessee Tech and a 4-3 loss to Tennessee-Martin. The women had similar results dropping to 2-9 overall with a 5-1 loss to Tech and a 7-0 loss to Martin.

Saturday’s match against the Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech was delayed two hours as a brief blizzard blew over the Darling Courts right at the scheduled start time of noon. Singles play was started first and doubles would only be played if the point was necessary. It would not be needed for either the men or the women.

The six-court Darling facility was broken down with women on the north side and the men playing on the south side. No. 1, 2 and 3 singles started first with 4, 5 and 6 starting afterwards. The women were quickly beaten 5-1 before juniors Chuck LeVaque and Brandon Lenfert even finished their matches on the other courts.

Lenfert was down early to Golden Eagles sophomore Tiago Gilioli dropping the first set and quickly falling behind in the second set.

“He played the best set and a half of tennis I have had to go against this season,” Lenfert said.

In tennis the players call shots in and out-of-bounds themselves and this does create some controversy.

Lenfert claimed Gilioli was calling shots very close and tension led to some arguments and for the one referee assigned to all the courts to closely watch the No. 3 singles match.

Lenfert did not let the score or the close calls get to him as he eventually found a way to get back in the match.

“I finally got to him by coming up to the net and playing aggressive,” Lenfert said. “He started losing some confidence but I just couldn’t close it out.”

With the entire crowd and all of their teammates watching, Lenfert pushed the third set score to 6-5 but Gilioli capitalized on some errors and won the match 6-0, 6-7, 7-6.

The No. 1 singles match-up of Chuck LeVaque and Tech’s Shunsuke Shimizu was also full of ups and downs. LeVaque dropped the first set but came back with a deciding 6-1 win in the second set.

With the third set score at 5-4, a long volley that saw LaVaque hit a shot backwards over his head and land perfectly in the opposite back corner, ended when Shimizu hitting a shot just out of bounds. LaVaque called the shot out and Shimizu and Tech head coach Randy Smith protested but the call was upheld and LaVaque won the only match for the Panther men on Saturday 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Sunday’s match-up against Tennessee-Martin was able to get under way at its 1 p.m. scheduled time, but the weather conditions were still cold and windy.

Doubles action started the day and sophomores Chris Thomas and Sean Bush turned in the deciding victory. After the No. 3 doubles team of Vuk Milicevic and Jordan Nestrud won 8-4 it was up to either the No. 1 doubles team of LeVaque and Lenfert or the No. 2 team of Thomas and Bush to wrap up a second victory and secure the doubles point. LeVaque and Lenfert lost 8-6 so all eyes were on No. 2 doubles. Thomas and Bush won a great volley close to the net and eventually closed out the match 8-6 to the cheers of the crowd and their teammates.

The women were not as fortunate as the men as No. 3 doubles of Sam Lininger and Cristina Carrillo lost quickly 8-0 and the No. 1 doubles pair of Madina Mambetova and Jill Wirtz also lost 8-4. Stephanie Harmazy and Sandra Sasidharan looked early on as though they were going to pull out the sole doubles victory of the women but they also lost as the Skyhawks swept doubles and went up 1-0.

In singles play the women did not fare any better. Sophomore Sandra Sasidharan lost only her second singles match of the season and women were beaten in all six of their singles match-ups.

The men were able to combine two singles wins with their doubles point but lost 4-3 to the Skyhawks. LaVaque went perfect for the weekend in singles play, ending a two-match singles losing streak.

“[The wins] feel pretty good,” LaVaque said. “It is always tough to win in conference.”

Coach Blackburn agrees that any win in conference is tough.

“There is a lot of parity in the OVC for the men,” he said. “Both of our matches we could have won, they were up for grabs. I kind of expect tough play like this in conference.”

With only three home matches left after this weekend coach Blackburn does not think the Panthers missed out on an opportunity to win at home.

“Yes it’s nice to wake up in your own bed and have your fans at the match,” Blackburn said. “But a home match is like any other, a chance to pick up a few wins and there are plenty of those left this season.”

The men and women will have a chance to pick up a few wins soon as they travel to Western Illinois Tuesday for a 3 p.m. match-up with the Leathernecks.