JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—The Carson-Newman men's tennis team could not string together two wins in a row as the Eagles were slowed down by Southern Indiana 8-1 Friday afternoon at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.

"We were defeated by a good team today and they played better than we did overall," coach Jean Love said following the loss. "We did several things well but just not enough and not at the right times. There are some positives that we can take away from this match that will help us in the future."

The Screaming Eagles (3-2) were losers of their last two contest coming into play Friday afternoon but were able to take care of the Eagles (1-4) in quick fashion by sweeping all six singles matches on the afternoon.

The lone point Carson-Newman accounted for on Friday came from the duo of Joao Pedro Oliveria (Brazil) and Jesus Barcete (Spain) at No. 2 doubles with a 9-8 win.

Jack Joyce and Aaron Barris started the afternoon off with an 8-2 win over Stafano Daza (Venezuela) and Juan Sebastian Perez (Ecaudor) at No.  1 doubles and Lee Presson (Crossville, Tenn.) and Kevin Mendes (Woodstock, Ga.) fell 8-3 in the third-seeded match.

Oliveira then led things off for the Eagles in singles play with a 6-3, 7-6 and 6-5 loss at No. 1. Perez then followed with a 6-0, 6-3 defeat at No. 2 and Daza rounded out the top-three with a 6-1, 6-1 loss in the third-seeded match.

Marc Bantel (Germany) competed in the fourth-seeded contest Friday and ended the day with a 7-6, 6-4 loss to Anthony Van Rompay. Mendes followed suit with a 7-5, 6-4 loss at No. 5 and Barcete finished off the day for the Eagles with a 3-6, 6-2 and 6-2 loss in three sets in the final singles match.  

"We were very competitive in four of the singles matches as JP, Marc, Kevin and Jesus lost tough matches.  If we just play a few points differently and win those points, the singles matches could have turned in our favor," Love said.  "We got off to a slow start at No. 3 doubles and that cost us and we were down a service break before you knew it.  Then we had two points in different games later in the pro set to get back on serve and just did not play those big points well.  Our No. 2 doubles team of JP and Jesus won a great match in a tiebreak.  The ebb and flow of that match was super with both teams battling and playing well."

Carson-Newman will be at it again on Friday against Coker for yet another match at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.

-CN-