After starting out strong and scoring the doubles point to open play, the Eastern Illinois men’s tennis team was unable to win its conference opener, losing to the Tennessee State Tigers 5-2 on a chilly Saturday afternoon at the Darling Courts.  

“We competed hard,” head coach Robin Cambier said. “We started off winning the doubles point which is great, and you know it gives us a 1-0 lead. Which is always good going into singles, but in college tennis there are six more points out there.”

Doubles play saw the Tigers win the No.1 spot set in doubles. Using the team of junior Tatenda Mutetwa and sophomore Rohan Loubser to win 6-2.  

But that’s where the Tigers’ luck in doubles ran out as the Panther’s team of senior Pieke Bouman and freshman Duarte Trocado picked up their third straight win in doubles together in the No.3 game. Along with the team of senior Tyler Carlin and senior Zach White in the No.2 game claiming their sixth overall win of the season as doubles partners. 

Eastern’s singles play was its struggle, however, with the team going 1-5.  

“We did good on a few courts but not all six, and we were able to get one win here to make it to two points but in college tennis you need four,” Cambier said.  

Leading the pack with the only singles win of the day was White in the No.3 game, but his win did not come easy. After opening up the game with a close set one victory, he then went on to drop the second set, only winning one game.  

Outside of White, no other Panther picked up a set-in singles play. The Tigers were able to go 11-2 overall on sets for singles.  

With Carlin very close to winning the second set of his singles match against Tigers sophomore Alexander Adamec. He came up just a hair short though in this matchup dropping both of his sets by only two games apiece. Which built out a stronger victory for the Tigers. 

These two sets of highly contested play White was able to outplay his opponent freshman James Adler Germinal. In an intense third set in White’s match, it came down to the wire with him closing out the match taking a 7-5 victory.  

Saturday saw 40-degree temperatures and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. According to Cambier, weather like this can be usual for a home match at the Darling Courts. But that home court advantage did not really play too much into effect for the whole team as the Tigers were able to show up and compete without much trouble being in the brisker weather conditions.  

Although the Panthers were not able to get the win, this was an improvement from their performance against the Tigers from last season where the Panthers failed to get on the scoreboard, losing 0-7.  

“I feel that the team fought pretty hard today. I wish we could have come up with a team win,” said White, “Last year we lost seven in a row, this year we won an extra match we just keep pushing forward.” 

Moving onto the future for the team their next matchup sees them competing in a road conference match against the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles.  

Cambier sees that the team’s double play is strong right now, but he still is trying to find ways for the team as a whole to consistently get to winning four points.

Gunnar Olson can be reached at 581-2812 or at deneic@gmail.com.