RICHMOND, Ky. – Sophomore
Diogo Soares fought back to win the deciding match at No. 3 singles to lead the Eastern Kentucky University men's tennis team to a 4-3 non-conference win over Radford Sunday morning.
EKU (11-5) faced a 3-2 deficit in the team score until sophomore
Sebastian Mueller (No. 2) and Soares each rallied to win in three sets. Mueller dropped the first set of his match, 6-2, before turning around to win the next two sets in convincing fashion, 6-1, 6-2. Mueller has now won eight consecutive singles matches.
With every other match complete, the team outcome came down to the third set between Soares and Radford's Michiel Meekers. Soares edged Meekers in a close set, 6-4, to improve to 8-3 in his first season on the squad.
Eastern opened the match by winning the doubles point for the sixth time in a row. Senior
Juanjo de la Llera and sophomore
Alberto Tintoré clinched the point with a 8-6 win at No. 3 doubles.
Junior
Florian Graskamp earned EKU's other point with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 5 singles.
"All of our guys are playing with an unbelievable amount of confidence right now," EKU head coach
Rob Oertel said. "Even when we were down today, I still had that feeling that we would win."
Eastern Kentucky returns to league action next weekend at Murray State (March 27) and Austin Peay (March 28).
Eastern Kentucky 4, Radford 3 Singles
1. Patrick O'Keefe (RAD) def. Daridge Saidi (EKU) 6-1, 6-1
2. Sebastian Mueller (EKU) def. Nikhil Mannepalli (RAD) 2-6, 6-1, 6-2
3. Diogo Soares (EKU) def. Michiel Meekers (RAD) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
4. Jose Moreno Manzano (RAD) def. Juanjo de la Llera (EKU) 7-6, 6-2
5. Florian Graskamp (EKU) def. Janken Thoen (RAD) 6-3, 6-1
6. Samuel Taylor (RAD) def. Colin Hart (EKU) 6-3, 6-3
Doubles
1. Soares/van Flymen (EKU) led O'Keefe/Waase (RAD) 7-5 DNF
2. Álvaro/Asis (EKU) def. Moreno Manzano/Thoen (RAD) 8-2
3. de la Llera/Tintoré EKU) def. Meekers/Mannepalli (RAD) 8-6
Match Notes: Eastern Kentucky (11-5); Radford (2-7)
Order of Finish: Doubles (2, 3*); Singles (5, 1, 6, 4, 2, 3*)
