This past weekend was a tale of two teams for the Tennessee men’s tennis squad, which beat Vanderbilt 5-2 on Friday at Goodfriend Tennis Center only to get swept 7-0 Sunday against SEC rival and No. 9 Kentucky.
Tennessee’s efforts on Friday, which included a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory for No. 42 freshman Mikelis Libietis over Vanderbilt’s No. 47 Charlie Jones, were suppose to ready the team for Sunday’s showdown with the Wildcats, but the Vols couldn’t weather Kentucky’s storm following a brief rain delay that moved the action inside.
“Sometimes you just get beaten,” UT head coach Sam Winterbotham said. “I didn’t think we competed very well starting singles, but after the break, I thought we played very well.”
Despite UT’s improved efforts following the 20-minute break, which featured solid second sets from Libietis, junior Edward Jones and freshman Brandon Fickey, Kentucky proved too much for No. 16 Tennessee.
“They’re an extremely good team,” Fickey said. “We knew that coming in. They’re undefeated in the SEC.”
Fickey was one of only two Vols who took Kentucky into three sets, losing 2-6, 6-2, 5-7 to No. 22 Anthony Rossi.
“He got off to a really good start and it was just an uphill battle from there,” Fickey said. “It was just a dogfight in the third set and he was able to play a little better towards the end.”
The freshman’s efforts proved to be Tennessee’s only chance for a point Sunday, as nearly every other match ended in two sets, including Libietis losing to No. 7 Eric Quigley 1-6, 4-6 and No. 92 Hunter Reese dropping both of his sets 3-6, 0-6 to No. 18 Alex Musialek.
But for Fickey, who was subject to some questionable line calls from the judge, there were no excuses for losing to Kentucky.
“We’re all hitting the ball so hard so it’s tough to call,” he said. “We all have our takes on calls, but it’s the judge’s call at the end.”
Despite the team’s lackluster performance against a top team in the country, Tennessee seems ready to put a bad loss behind them and move on in the season.
“I know this program is getting a lot better,” Winterbotham said. “Kentucky’s just a little too experienced for us, right now. If you look at them on paper, they’ve got four of the six guys ranked. They’re the team to beat, maybe it’s their year.”
The loss to Kentucky currently puts the Vols at 12-10 (4-4 SEC) for the season, ending a four-game win streak and positioning them fourth in the SEC East. But even though the team took a few steps back over the weekend, Winterbotham is staying positive.
“I had great parents that taught me many things,” he said. “One of those things were that it’s never the end of the world. We can get something out of this. I’ll give myself 20 minutes to feel sorry for myself and then we’ll figure out a solution. That’s what this team has been doing all year. I’m very proud of them for that.”
The Vols will ready themselves for their final road trip this regular season, taking on Auburn this Friday and Alabama on Easter Sunday.
