Freshman Logan Charbonneau said before the match against Eastern Kentucky, the Eastern men’s tennis team needed to clinch the doubles point.

The Panthers opened Friday’s Ohio Valley Conference match winning all three of those doubles matches but could not maintain that momentum throughout the match falling at Eastern Kentucky, 6-1.

Eastern won all three matches in doubles action to jump out to a 1-0 lead in the match. Senior Jared Woodson and sophomore Gage Kingsmith picked up the first win playing at No. 1 doubles with a 6-1 victory over Ramon van Flymen and Gabe Ruiz.

Sophomore Freddie O’Brien and senior Trent Reiman would follow suit for Eastern picking up a 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles over Guillem Sanchis and Carlos Dodero. Senior Grant Reiman and Charbonneau would close out the doubles sweep for the Panthers with a 6-4 win at No. 3 doubles over Parth Aggarwal and Juan Soria.

For Charbonneau he trusted Grant Reiman in key situations and that helped them clinch a point.

“Something I liked in the doubles match would be Grant’s volleys in clutch situations,” Charbonneau said. “I felt confident that if I just put a serve in he would be able to finish the point at the net for us.”

Eastern coach Sam Kercheval liked his team’s efforts in doubles play, but said there is still room for improvement.

“Our energy and play in doubles was pretty good against Eastern Kentucky and we got the point,” Kercheval said. “There is still room to improve but when it came down to it, we made first serves, attacked the net and picked good targets.”

The Colonels would flip the script in singles play as Eastern Kentucky swept all six singles matches in straight sets.

Playing at No. 2 singles, Charbonneau pushed his match against Aggarwal before falling 6-3, 6-4.  O’Brien was competitive at No. 1 singles against van Flymen before falling 6-2, 6-4.

“Of course it was good to compete with No. 2 singles and be in the match at all times but I still have a lot to work on as always, I need to improve on late-rally striking and being able to change my pace later in points,” Charbonneau said.

Finishing off singles play, Trent (Reiman) lost in straight sets, to Sanchis 6-0, 6-3 at the No 3. singles. Kingsmith struggled against Gabriel Ruiz, dropping both sets 6-1, 6-2 at No. 4 singles.

Freshman Kaisei Kuroki at No 5. singles fell to Joshua Piunti 6-2, 6-1, and rounding out at the No. 6 singles, sophomore Braden Davis lost to Carlos Dodero, 6-1, 6-0.

For Kercheval, he thought the Eastern Kentucky responded well in singles play.

“The Colonels came out strong in singles and we didn’t respond after the first few games,” he said. “They jumped on us right away and we didn’t have fight to get back in it. Eastern Kentucky is always better in singles but we didn’t have what we needed to battle with them.”

Eastern falls to 4-14 overall and 0-3 in the OVC.  The Panthers host Belmont and Tennessee State next weekend. Eastern Kentucky improved to 5-13 overall and won its first OVC match, now standing at 1-0.

Vince Lovergine can be reached at 581-2812 or vplovergine@eiu.edu