It was a hard season for the Eastern men’s and women’s tennis teams to swallow this year as both squads were unable to secure a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

The men (4-15, 1-6 OVC) had a chance to earn an OVC tournament spot in their last weekend of the season, but they lost to Murray State, 3-4, and Austin Peay, 3-4, in their final weekend.

By not making the tournament, the Panthers considered this season a down year.

“It wasn’t as good as we were hoping for because we didn’t make the tournament,” freshman Warren Race said.

Even though the Panthers will lose two seniors off of the roster, they are looking forward to next season and know what they have to improve on.

“For next season we will be focused on working on adapting to different styles of play,” Race said. “Bad match-ups caused us a lot of trouble.”

For next season, the Panthers’ goals are to recruit well and field a good enough team to make the OVC Tournament.

“Definitely make the conference tournament,” Race said. “But depending on who the coach brings in will make things easier or harder because recruiting is always interesting.”

One of the Panthers’ graduating seniors is Jeff Rutherford, who earned his third career All-OVC honor this season with an 11-8 record, the best on the team. Rutherford was the No. 1 player in every match he competed and was 6-1 against OVC opponents.

Rutherford and his doubles teammate sophomore Matyas Hilgert were 1-2 in doubles play this season.

In his career, Rutherford went 48-35 in singles play and 32-28 in doubles action.

On the women’s side of the court, the Panthers (6-12, 3-6 OVC) also fell short of an OVC Tournament berth on the last weekend of the season, being demolished by Murray State, 7-0, and Austin Peay, 7-0.

With no seniors on the roster, the Panthers used this season as a learning experience for their two freshmen, four sophomores and two juniors.

“This was a learning year,” junior Cara Huck said. “We had a young team.”

Huck said she feels like the team has learned that in order to win as a team they need to play as a team, too.

“I think we learned this year is that it takes a lot of effort on everybody’s part to be encouraging, so everyone can be successful,” Huck said.

The most successful Panther on the women’s side was freshman Merritt Whitley, who was 9-7 but 3-4 in OVC play. She had a winning record in both the No. 5 and No. 4 spots in the Panthers’ lineup.

With the entire team coming back, the Panthers don’t just plan to qualify for the OVC Tournament but they want to perform well once they get there.

“Next year we hope to come in with more experience and our goal is to make the (OVC) tournament,” Huck said. “We believe that we can not only make it but do well in the tournament.”

Dane Urban can be reached at 581-7944 or dcurban@eiu.edu.

Senior Jeff Rutherford goes over strategy with doubles partner freshman Justin Haag during their match against Austin Peay at Darling Courts Sunday afternoon. (Danny Damiani/The Daily Eastern News)

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