EDWARDSVILLE, Ill – The Jacksonville State men's and women's tennis teams dropped Ohio Valley Conference matches to SIU Edwardsville on Saturday on the SIUE campus.
After the JSU men topped Eastern Illinois of Friday, the Gamecocks suffered a tough 4-3 loss to the Cougars. The Jax State women fell 7-0 to SIUE in a late afternoon match. The JSU men will head into the final weekend of the regular season at 8-13 overall and 4-3 in conference play. The Gamecock women dropped to 6-15 on the season and 4-4 against OVC competition. JSU finishes the regular season against Murray State on April 15 and Austin Peay on April 16 at the JSU Tennis Courts.
In the men's match, it came down to the singles match at No. 6, which ended up going the distance. JSU's
Austin McCormick got off to a good start in the match by winning the first set over SIUE's Jack Desse, but could not fend off Desse's comeback as he dropped a the match 6-4, 6-0.
JSU posted the doubles point after the JSU pairing of
Andres Gomez and Liu Shao Chun clinched the point at No. 1 after ousting Patrick Gaffigan and Tristan Houle, 7-6 (6). Jax State's tandem of
Pedro Wagner and
Mathias Chaim downed Nico Kuehn and Dan Lineberry, 6-3.
The singles match at No. 6 was one of four battles that lasted for three sets, but JSU was on the short end of three of those. Gomez edged Kuehn at No. 5 after the final two sets were decided on tiebreakers. Gomez claimed the opening set, 6-2, but faltered in the second set 7-6. He bounced back to help JSU even the match at 3-all with the deciding point coming at No. 6. JSU's only other point in singles came at No. 2 with
Jaryd Reese's 6-2, 6-3 win over Matthew Hutchinson.
SIUE's Patrick Gaffigan extended Chaim to three sets after falling in the opening set. Wagner also lost a three set match to Tristan Houle.
In the women's match, it was all SIUE as they won the doubles point at No. 2 and 3. SIUE's team of Sierra Halverson and Monique Krutak topped JSU's pairing of
Claudia Marsala and
Diana Mirceta, 6-2 to clinch the point. Lexi Aranda and Morgan Steffes quick-worked Jax State's duo of
Courtney Conley and
Sadey St. Amant, 6-1.
SIUE's momentum continued into singles as it won five of the six matches in straight sets. Marsala's match at No. 2 went to three sets after a split of the first two with SIUE's Mia Frogner. Frogner shook off a 6-3 win by Marsala in the opening set to win 6-3, 10-4. Senior
Olivia Nguyen dropped a 6-1, 6-1 match to Aranda at No. 1, while
Genevie Ulanday lost 6-2, 6-0 to Madeline Hill. Mirceta, St. Amant and Conley all lost in straight sets.
