Mark Elliott could not believe his ears when he received a surprising phone call last year.

Elliott had returned to the United States after coaching five years tennis in China and was on the lookout for a new job.

On the other end of the line were two twin girls he coached when they were just eight years old, growing up in Pleasanton, Calif. The twins were Drew and Bryce Kristal, informing Elliott that their head coach at SEMO had left and the school was searching for a replacement.

“The girls told me to send in my application and that was it,” said Elliot, currently in his first year as SEMO’s head coach. “They really got me the job. Tennis is such a small world, a small fraternity, and you meet a lot of people in my 50 years in the game.”

Bryce and Drew Kristal, now juniors at SEMO who play together in doubles and at No. 1 and 2 singles respectively, could not lead their team to victory against the Panthers when they met in the regular season. Eastern pulled out a 4-3 victory on April 10 and the two teams will square off again in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Championships.

“The weather conditions were pretty rough – strong wind and the threat of rain,” Elliott said. “I think in better weather we match up very well.”

After falling short the last two seasons, both the men’s and women’s teams are headed to Nashville, Tenn.

Finishing the season with a 12-8 overall record and 7-3 mark in the OVC, the Panthers earned the No. 3 seed and will play No. 6 seeded SEMO. The men earned the No. 5 seed in the tournament and finished the season 13-7 overall with a 5-4 record in conference play.

The women will play first on Friday morning at the Centennial Sportsplex, kicking off the tournament at 10 a.m. The men will follow at 2 p.m.

“It was very recently that we played (SEMO),” said Eastern head coach John Blackburn. “It’s fresh in our minds and we think we know how to approach them.”

If they win, the women will play No. 2 seed Murray State, who defeated the Panthers 5-2 on April 15.

The men have a more difficult path to travel in the tournament.

They drew No. 4 seeded Eastern Kentucky who blew out the Panthers in Charleston, 7-0.

EKU has been inconsistent at the top of their singles line-up, but their No. 5 and 6 players have been dominant. No single member of the team has competed in either slot more than nine times this season but combined Colonels have racked up an impressive 19-7 record at No. 5 singles and an even better 21-6 record at No. 6 singles.

The Panther men will enter the match against EKU following losses in three of their last four matches but Blackburn said the team’s confidence is still high and they are trying to carry that into the OVC Championship.

No. 4 singles player junior Chris Thomas said he knew right from the start this team was going to be much better than last year’s squad.

“We didn’t lose anyone and we actually got stronger with (freshmen) Jeff Rutherford who has been great,” Thomas said. “Everyone on this team knows we can win any match we go into.”

Junior tennis player Sean Bush returns a serve during his doubles match against Eastern Kentucky University last Friday at Darling Courts. (John Bailey/The Daily Eastern News)

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