Eastern’s men’s tennis team went down to Carbondale on a 70 degree day to face off against in-state rival Southern Illinois and suffered a 5-2 loss.

The Panthers now fall to 2-14 on the season. The loss also extends the Panthers losing-streak to six games.

Sophomore Michael Sperry lost his match in two sets to the Saluki’s No. 1, Adam Fabrik, 6-1, 6-3. The win was Sperry’s third of the season as he improved his record to 3-13.

Sperry was not as successful in doubles as he and junior Matyas Hilgert also lost their one set match 8-4.

Sperry said despite the loss the team feels it is progressing in the right direction.

“The team has come together, we are a young team and we try to build off of it every day,” Sperry said.

Sperry said his proudest moment as a Panther was his first win at No.1 versus Valparaiso and he is proud of the way his young teammates have played throughout the season.

“All of us on the team have been talking and we are going to train extremely hard over the summer and I plan on going to California to train with my older brother,” Sperry said.

Freshman Kevin Bauman and freshman Volodymyr Zverkovsky were the only Panthers to record wins.

Bauman won in two sets 6-3, 7-5 and Zverkovsky won in three sets 2-6, 6-3, 10-8. Despite, going into a third set tie-breaker Zverkovsky was still able to finish his match before Bauman won his.

Bauman improved his overall record this season to 8-8; however, he and sophomore Warren Race had won three straight doubles matches, but they were unable to grab another win losing 8-6 in a one set match.

The Panthers take on Murray State, Saturday for their regular season finale and Sperry said it is the biggest game of the year. The result of the game will decided whether Eastern can make an attempt at a post-season run.

“We are very prepared, it’s going to be a good match but I think we can pull it off. It’s going to be a real test for the team,” Bauman said.

As for next year, Bauman said that the team should be much better.

“It helps that we all have matches under our belt and our experience will make us a much better team next year,” Bauman said.

Seamus Riley can be reached at 581-7944 or at [email protected]