Men's Tennis Edged By Eastern Kentucky 4-3

Friday, April 6

Murray, Ky.

2:30 p.m.

Murray State

Eastern Kentucky

4/6/2007 5:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Murray State's men's tennis team fell to Eastern Kentucky University, 4-3, today at the Bennie Purcell Tennis Courts on the MSU campus. The Racers (2-11, 1-3 OVC) took a 3-0 advantage but the Colonels (15-9, 5-2 OVC) mounted a comeback and finished it off with a three set win at No. 6 singles to claim the match.

In doubles play, each team picked up a quick 8-1 victory. MSU's Dmytro Hryhorash and Fadi Zamjaoui beat Lars Gratzki and Mario Simic at No. 1 doubles. Just moments later EKU's Frederico Goncalves and Florian Kiefer knocked off Hunter Gerlach and Chris Horton at No. 3 doubles.

The doubles point would go to the team that could pull out a victory at No. 2 doubles. The match was a back and forth affair. MSU's Yuri Pompeu held serve to give the Racers a 7-6 lead, but EKU's Chad Becker and Zach Itzstein came right back and tied it at 7-7.

After Murray State went ahead 8-7, Pompeu and Jeff Lester quickly took a 40-0 lead in the 16^th game. EKU returned Pompeu's shot into the net and the Racers won the match and the doubles point.

Singles wins by Zamjaoui and Hryhorash quickly extended the Racer lead to 3-0, but the Colonels would come back.

Hryhorash beat Mel Segota, 6-1 and 6-1, at No. 2 singles. Then Zamjaoui defeated Gratzki, 6-1 and 6-3, at No. 1 singles.

Eastern Kentucky won the next three matches to tie it up at 3-3.

Goncalves knocked off Gerlach, 6-4 and 6-0, at No. 3 singles. Itzstein beat Lester, 6-3 and 6-2, at No. 4 singles. Vadzim Ivanis tied the match with a 6-3 and 7-5 win over Pompeu at No. 5 singles.

That left the No. 6 match between MSU's Horton and EKU's Becker as the deciding match.

Horton took the first set 7-5 but Becker came back to win the second set 6-4 and set up a decisive third set. Horton had a 4-2 lead, and was up 40-0 in the seventh game, but Becker came back and won the seventh game and then took the third set 7-5.

The Racers will be back in action on Saturday when they host Morehead State University at KenLake State Resort Park. The match will begin at 12 p.m.