The Eastern women’s and men’s tennis teams lost their respective first-round matches in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, losing 4-1 and 4-3 to Morehead State and Austin Peay, respectively, at the Larry J. Heflin Tennis Center in Paducah, Ky., Thursday.

Both Eastern squads entered the tournament as the No. 6 seeds, with the women finishing their season at 11-6 and the men at 7-10 overall.

Men’s match

After losing the doubles point, the Eastern men’s tennis team battled back to tie its match against Austin Peay.

With the match tied a three points apiece, the decisive point came down to the No. 3 singles flight between Eastern sophomore Ryan Henderson and Austin Peay’s Aleksas Tverijonas.

Following a first-set loss by Henderson that needed a tie-breaker, ultimately ending with a 7-6 (7-3) win by Austin Peay, Tverijonas won the second set 6-3, clinching the match win for the Governors.

The Panthers ended their season at 7-10, with a 4-5 OVC record and their first tournament appearance since the 2008-09 season.

Austin Peay went ahead in its match against Eastern, winning the No. 1 and 3 doubles flights by identical scores of 8-4 that gave them the overall team point.

The Governors quickly built their lead to 3-0, with wins in the No. 1 and 2 flights in the singles matches, as Jasmin Ademovic defeated Eastern’s Moritz Kandt 6-0, 6-0 and Dimitar Ristovski won his match 6-0, 6-2 over Eastern’s Grant Thompson.

Down 3-0 in the match, the Panthers won three consecutive singles matches to tie Austin Peay.

Kevin Bauman, Robert Skolik and Rui Silva all collected their wins at the No. 5, 4 and 6 flights.

All three men won their matches in straight sets, as Bauman beat James Mitchell 6-1, 6-3, Skolik defeated Iago Seffrin 6-1, 6-1 and Silva won 7-5, 6-1 over Manuel Montenegro.

Henderson was unable to complete the comeback, losing the No. 3 singles flight.

The Governors advanced to the semifinals, where they will play the No. 2 seed Belmont.

Women’s match

The sophomore duo of Ali Foster and Hannah Kimbrough continued its success in doubles play, but the Panthers could not lead No. 6 seed Eastern past No. 3 seed Morehead State.

The Eagles won the double point, winning two of the three matches and then wrapped up their first-round win by getting three singles matches wins for their 4-1 win.

Foster and Kimbrough won their doubles match at the No. 2 flight, defeating Dominique McLean and Sandrine Beaule 8-0.

Morehead State bounced back and won the No. 1 and 3 flights in doubles play, as Briar Preston and Alex Tachovsky beat Eastern’s Janelle Prisner and Sephora Boulbahaiem 8-2.

Hayley Wild and Andrea LeBlanc recorded the No. 3 flight win at 8-5 to give the Eagles the team point.

Eastern needed to win four of the six singles matches to win the match, but Morehead State was able to win three matches to advance into the semifinals.

The Panthers’ lone singles win came at the No. 5 flight, as Kimbrough took a three-set match over Beaule, splitting the first two sets, 6-2, 2-6 and then winning her match with a third-set win of 6-0.

Morehead State won the No. 1, 2 and 6 flights in singles matches, claiming their spot in the next round of the tournament.

All three wins for the Eagles came in straight sets. They will play Eastern Kentucky in the semifinals.

Eastern finished the season at 11-6 and 5-5 in the OVC, as the Panthers made it to the tournament for the third straight year.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.