The Eastern men’s and women’s tennis teams spilt their final road Ohio Valley Conference matches of the season, with the men winning 6-1 and the women losing 7-0 to Murray State Sunday.

At 6-7 overall and 3-3 in conference play, the men earned the doubles point with wins by Mortiz Kandt and Grant Thompson to begin the matches.

Then, Rui Silva and Ryan Henderson clinched the 1-0 match point and the doubles lead with an 8-3 victory.

Then in singles, Eastern picked up wins at No. 2, 3 and 4 spots as Henderson, Thompson and Robert Skolik each captured their respective victories in consecutive sets.

That would be all the scoring Eastern would need for the victory, but an additional win by Kevin Bauman at No. 5 would add to the Panther margin of victory.

“I thought Grant and Moritz both had an excellent doubles match and Ryan was excellent from the first ball,” said associate tennis director/men’s coach Eric Stark said press release. “We will get right back to work as we are hungry to keep getting better.”

However, the women lost two of three doubles before dropping consecutive singles in straight sets to the Racers, who lead the OVC.

The Eastern women fell to 8-3 overall and 2-3 in OVC play.

But on Saturday, it was the women that were fortunate while the men weren’t against Austin Peay.

The Panther women beat the Lady Governors 5-2, and the Panther men lost to the Governors by the same score.

The duos of Ali Foster and Hannah Kimbrough and Kelly Iden and Kamile Standlninkaite picked up respective 8-3 and 8-2 wins at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to get the Panthers the doubles victory.

In singles play, Foster, Sephora Boulbaheim and Iden all earned consecutive set wins at No. 4, No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively.

Senior Janelle Prisner earned a 7-6, 7-5 victory at the top of the lineup for the final point for Eastern.

For the men’s team, Bauman and, along with Kandt and Thompson both earned 8-6 and 8-7 victories at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, respectively.

The doubles win gave Eastern an early 1-0 match advantage, but Austin Peay won three consecutive singles matches.

But Skolik fell to Iago Seffrin in the decisive three-hour match, resulting in an Eastern loss (6-2, 3-6, 7-6).

“Rob’s match was one of the best college matches I have witnessed this year,” Stark said. “He left everything out there and that’s all I can ask of these men.”

Both the men and the women will return to action at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Charleston High School Courts.

Anthony Catezone can be reached 581-2812 or ajcatezone@eiu.edu.