The AU men's tennis team was defeated at home by the Radford Highlanders, 2-5, Sunday. The Eagles' overall record fell to 7-6.
The match started on a rough note for the Eagles. They lost two out of the three matches in doubles play, causing them to miss the point.
The singles matches initially looked as if the Eagles would turn things around. Freshman Josh Levitz was victorious against his opponent, beating him, 7-6, 6-4. Senior Juancarlo Vazquez pulled off a commanding victory over his opponent, 6-3, 6-4. However, Senior Sebastien Proisy and junior Andrew Singer both were defeated.
Junior Jeffrey Schnell managed to keep hope alive for the Eagles by fighting off a match point. And Senior Nicolas Frayssinoux appeared to have a solid lead over his opponent, Martin Sawyer.
But the match went downhill when Sawyer came back to win the last two sets. That gave him and his team match wins. Afterward, Schnell quickly dropped the third set.
Although the Eagles lost, coach Kyle Bailey was satisfied with the match because of the passion that he saw his team display.
"I thought they fought very hard," he said. "It was just a few points that didn't really go our way, but the point is that we put ourselves in a position to win the match. The attitude and effort was really there and I am proud of them."
Added Levitz: "We fought pretty hard, but for a lot of us it wasn't really our day today. We all were in it mentally. It could have gone either way, really."
However, Bailey also said improving doubles performance was crucial to future success.
"We need to continue to work on our doubles," he said. "I think it's going to be something that's very important. Today we lost the doubles point, and if we had won it then would have had a definite chance to win the match"
