Eastern men’s tennis fell short once again Sunday when the Panthers fell 4-3 to Toledo at the Atkins Tennis Center in Champaign.

The loss was Eastern’s closest loss of the year.

“(Sunday) was one heck of a battle, as this match couldn’t get much closer,” Eastern coach Eric Stark said.

The Panthers extended their eight-game losing streak yesterday morning and now fall to 0-8 on the season while the Rockets improve to 8-6.

Eastern had an extra day to prepare after their match scheduled for Saturday at Southern Illinois was postponed to March 4 due to bad weather conditions.

Doubles matches continued to struggle for Eastern as they lost the No. 1 and No. 2 matches.

The No. 3 doubles match went unfinished after senior David Constantinescu and freshman Grant Reiman took senior Roberto Mezo and freshman Stephen Miller to a 6-6 tie in the first set.

Singles matches is where the Panthers shined once again getting all of their overall points in that fashion.

In the No. 1 match, Rockets sophomore Stjepan Sisko defeated junior Ryan Henderson 7-6, 6-2. Senior Mark Singnil defeated freshman Preston Touliatos in a tiebreaker 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) in the No. 3 singles match and in the No. 6 match Miller defeated Grant Reiman 6-2, 6-3.

Eastern saw success from their older players in the No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 singles matches starting with junior Robert Skolik defeating Nicky Wong 6-3, 6-4. Junior Rui Silva defeated freshman Omar Espinosa 6-3, 6-4 in the No. 4 match and David Constantinescu defeated senior Roberto Meza 6-0, 6-4 in the No. 5 match.

The Panthers now have three non-conference games left before they battle against their own conference opponents.

Stark continues to rave about how important the conference season is and the last few non-conference games are great opportunities to prepare for it.   

“We are not thinking in terms of wins and losses. We are gearing up for the start of conference play in a few weeks. If we work hard, play hard and fight for every point, we will be in for a successful conference season,” he said before the match against Toledo.

The Panthers have the rescheduled match against Southern Illinois left on their schedule. Also, they have Saint Louis and their next matchup Chicago State remaining on the schedule before the conference season starts.

Eastern will take on the Cougars at H-F Racquet Club in Homewood-Flossmoor at 4 p.m.

Cody Delmendo can be reached at 581-2812 or cddelmendo@eiu.edu.