Eastern men’s tennis fell short Wednesday afternoon at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville taking the loss 4-3 at the SIUE Courts in Edwardsville.

Eastern now sits at 2-2 in conference play and 3-11 overall with five matches remaining. With the loss, the Cougars moved ahead of the Panthers in the conference standings with a 3-2 record.

The Panthers now sit in fourth place tied with Morehead State.

“It was another tough one. It’s nice to know we are capable of competing with these teams but as the season passes by, losses like this become harder and harder,” junior Robert Skolik said.

Eastern coach Eric Stark stated Tuesday that Edwardsville was tough in doubles matches, which was a true statement after this matchup the next day.

The Panthers started out well in doubles winning the No. 1 match but falling in the last two matches giving the Cougars the doubles point.

Eastern’s No. 1 doubles duo Skolik and freshman Preston Touliatos added to their team leading doubles record with a 8-7 win over Edwardsville seniors Stephen Washuta and Nicolas Vincent.

The duo now sits at 5-8 overall and 2-1 in conference matches.

“Doubles was a solid win for Preston and me,” Skolik said.

After the duo won the first match, the Cougars took over from there in doubles matches. Cougar juniors Marten Jonsson and Nico Kuehn defeated fellow Panther juniors Ryan Henderson and Rui Silva 8-5, and Edwarsville junior Patrick Gaffigan and sophomore Matthew Hutchinson defeated the Reiman twins, Grant and Trent 8-2.

Singles matches were back in fourth for most of the day with the Panthers winning the No. 1 and No. 2 matches but then losing the No. 3 and No. 4 matches.

Skolik won the No. 1 match in a tiebreaker 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 over Vincent. The win gave Skolik his seventh straight singles victory, which leads the team overall. He now sits at 8-6 overall in singles matches.

Touliatos defeated Jonsson in a tiebreaker as well 1-6, 7-6, 6-3. The freshman now has won three straight singles matches and looks like he’s continuing to build confidence.

The Cougars took a 3-2 lead after Henderson and senior David Constantinescu both took losses in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots.

Silva lost a close match in the No. 5 singles spot going to a tiebreaker as well defeating Edwarsdsville freshman Tristan Houle 6-3, 5-7, 10-7, which brought the match to a 3-3 tie going into the No. 6 singles spot.

Freshman Trent Reiman failed to win a set against Gaffigan taking the loss 6-1, 6-1.

“He played a good match, but it was only his third of the season, which is a tough situation,” Skolik said. “I couldn’t be more proud the way he fought on the tennis court today though.”

The Panthers now have a couple days to rest up before they take a break from conference action and face off against Saint Louis on Saturday.

Eastern still needs two more conference wins to make the OVC Tournament but will look to build some confidence at home at the Darling Courts at 1 p.m.   

Cody Delmendo can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].