Eastern tennis coach Brian Holzgrafe is breathing easily these days. The dominating victories against Western Illinois in a dual match Tuesday made him realize he has an easy job.

The men blanked the Leathernecks 7-0 while the women handled a 6-1 victory, continuing each team’s fall success.

“The kids got up for it, and honestly, that makes me take a deep breath and smile,” Holzgrafe said. “They could have gone out there without a coach and have done the same thing.”

The men’s team won all six singles matches and took doubles point by winning two of the the three. The women swept the doubles, but Audra Koerner fell at the No. 6 singles spot in a close 2-6, 6-4, (10-6) loss to Paula Schultz to give Western its lone point.

Though the men held on for a shutout, Holzgrafe said they had it tougher than the women.

“The girls had a little easier time,” he said. “(Western) had a couple of guys at the top who were talented.”

Becky Brunner and Sarah Freeman continued to roll for the Panthers at the one and two spots as the two both controlled their singles matches and teamed up for an 8-0 doubles win.

“(Brunner) is tough,” Holzgrafe said of his No. 1 player. “Her and Sarah Freeman are just going with it. Having leadership at the top of the lineup is just phenomenal. Sarah has really come alive this year to be a leader.”

For the men, all singles players except freshman Brandon Lenfert took down their opponent in straight sets.

The Panthers missed perfection by just a hair as doubles tandem C.J. Weber and Brandon Blankenbaker got knocked off by Matt Kinst and Drew Forsberg.

Holzgrafe said he has been pleased with the play of his young players, especially freshman Charles Levaque.

Holzgrafe has used Levaque in the No. 3 spot this year to replace departed senior Lukasz Pluta.

“Chuck more than replaced that,” Holzgrafe said. “The consistency of his effort is what does it for him. We didn’t always get that with Lukasz.”

After both teams had solid finishes in last year’s Ohio Valley Conference and Holzgrafe received coach of the year honors, he is seeing nothing but good things.

“This is really a compliment to those players and coaches in previous years,” he said. “Eastern has a good tennis team, and a matter of fact, it has two good teams.”