PADUCAH, Ky. – The opening round of the 2013 Ohio Valley Conference men’s tennis championships came down to a third set tie-breaker with Eastern Kentucky pulling out a 4-3 victory over rival Morehead State. The Colonels (13-12) advance to play No. 2 seed Austin Peay tomorrow.

Junior Joao Maio won the decisive tie-breaker at the No. 5 singles match, edging Morehead State’s Nick Mercer.

Sophomore Juanjo de la Llera (No. 2), freshman Alex Alvaro (No. 3) and freshman Lucas Smets (No. 4) were also victorious for the No. 3 seed Colonels. Eastern needed to win four singles matches after dropping the doubles point to the Eagles (8-13) at the start of the match.

EKU won the regular season meeting over Morehead State, 5-2.

Eastern and Austin Peay will square off tomorrow, April 20 beginning at 3 p.m. The Govs downed the Colonels earlier this year by a count of 5-2.

2013 OVC Tournament – Quarterfinals
No. 3 Eastern Kentucky 4, No. 6 Morehead State 3

Singles
1. Ji Hoon Heo (MOR) def. Daridge Saidi (EKU)   5-7, 7-5, 7-5
2. Juanjo de la Llera (EKU) def. Nathan Martin (MOR)  7-5, 6-2
3. Alex Alvaro (EKU) def. Giovanni Samaha (MOR)  6-2, 6-1
4. Lucas Smets (EKU) def. David Clifford (MOR)   6-0, 6-4
5. Joao Maio (EKU) def. Nick Mercer (MOR)   6-4, 6-7, 7-6
6. Kevin Deligny (MOR) def. Florian Graskamp (EKU)  7-5, 6-3

Doubles
1. de la Llera/Smets (EKU) def. Heo/Mercer (MOR)  8-4
2. Clifford/Deligny (MOR) def. Alvaro/Dombrowski (EKU) 8-6
3. Almonte/Martin (MOR) def. Maio/Saidi (EKU)  9-8

Match Notes: Eastern Kentucky (13-12); Morehead State (8-13)
Order of Finish: Doubles (1, 2, 3); Singles (4, 3, 2, 6, 1, 5*)