The Eastern men’s tennis team was handed its fourth-straight loss at Jacksonville State, 5-2, Saturday.

The men now sit at 3-14 overall and 2-5 in the OVC with two matches left in the season.

The Panthers have to win out in order to qualify for the OVC tournament, which starts April 17 in Nashville.

The Gamecocks improved to 8-10 on the season and have won two matches in a row after their victory Saturday.

Jacksonville State also improved to 4-2 in conference matches as well and sits atop the pack in fourth place. Only Tennessee Tech, Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay have better conference records than the Gamecocks.

The men added to their doubles struggles once again, losing all three matches making their record 8-32 overall.

The team has only won the doubles point twice all season at Chicago State and Murray State. The squad won both of those matches.

In the No. 1 doubles match, Jacksonville State junior Pedro Wagner and sophomore Jeff Wendler-Filho defeated junior Robert Skolik and freshman Preston Touliatos, 8-4. Skolik and Touliatos now have a record of 5-10 on the season, which leads the Panthers.

No. 2 doubles went unfinished at 7-6 in a close match between Gamecock senior Felipe Diaz and sophomore Jaryd Reese and senior David Constantinescu and junior Rui Silva.

In the No. 3 doubles match, Gamecock sophomores Dylan Gee and Mathias Chaim defeated the Reiman twins, Grant and Trent, 8-6, to give the Gamecocks the doubles point.

The Panthers only took the No. 3 and No. 4 singles matches, which eventually gave Jacksonville State the victory.

Eastern junior Ryan Henderson was given his first No. 1 singles match opportunity since the Panthers faced off against Toledo back on February 22. The junior moved to 0-2 in the No. 1 singles spot after losing to Wendler-Filho in two sets 6-1, 6-3.

Skolik took his second-straight singles loss bringing his singles record to 8-8 overall. The junior took the loss to Gee 6-4, 6-3, in the No. 2 singles matches. This was Skolik’s first match in the No. 2 spot since the Toledo match as well.

Touliatos and Silva both won in the No. 3 and No. 4 singles matches, which for the time brought the match to just a one-point lead for the Gamecocks. Touliatos defeated Chaim 6-2, 6-2, and Silva defeated Wagner in a tiebreaker 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Reese and Felipe Wenzel finished the match off for Jacksonville State to seal the victory in the end with victories over freshmen Jared Woodson and Grant Reiman.

The Panthers will try to snap their four-game losing streak next weekend at the Darling Courts as they host Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky to finish out the regular season. Both matches will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

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