The Tennessee men’s tennis team lost 4-1 Sunday afternoon to Illinois at the Goodfriend Tennis Center. After displaying a high-energy comeback on all courts to win the double’s point, the Vols were unable to carry the lead in singles play.
The Vols lost the first set on all six courts and were unable to keep their composure to overcome the deficits.
“It’s a tough loss; every loss is a tough loss,” UT freshman Mikelis Libietis said. “Every day you need to just go and play the best that you can.”
Sophomore Taylor Patrick lost to Illinois’ Tim Kopinski on court five, 1-6, 2-6, which gave the Illini their first point of the match. Patrick was playing up a court for the injured Edward Jones. On court four, sophomore Jarryd Chaplin fell to Bruno Abdelnour, 2-6, 4-6. Freshman Brandon Fickey’s match against No. 24 Roy Kalmanovich resulted in not only a loss, but a point penalty and a game penalty when Fickey threw his racket and walked off the court when his match ended.
“He (Fickey) handled things the exact opposite of how you should handle things,” UT coach Sam Winterbotham said. “He threw a fit on the court today when things didn’t go his way. Look, that isn’t what lost us the match. It’s Brandon’s behavior throughout our team today, the attitude.”
Libietis, who was named SEC Freshman of the Week last week, played Dennis Nevolo who is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation. Losing the first set 4-6, Libietis was serving up a break in the second set when he took the game penalty that was received from Fickey on court two. Instead of serving for a 5-3 lead in the second set, the game penalty made the score 4-4.
Senior Bryan Swartz lost his match on court six to Farris Gosea 6-7, 4-6. Gosea’s win for the Illini gave Illinois the final point to win the match 4-1. Hunter Reese lost 2-6 in the first set at court three, but was in a second set tie breaker at 6-6 against Stephen Hoh when the match was called.
“There wasn’t the humbleness, the competitiveness, the willingness to fight and to establish your game — you have to establish your game,” Winterbotham said. “They need to compete and stay within that plan throughout the match and have the toughness and the discipline to do that. We didn’t have that today.”
Libietis/Reese won 8-6 on court one, and then a victory on court three from Nagovnak/Chaplin gave the Vols the doubles point. Court three was unfinished. Tennessee has won the doubles point in all six matches this season.
“We’ve got to learn from this match, and we’ll look at the video,” Winterbotham said. “We will set up a plan for next week. We have to prepare for a really good Duke team who just beat this Illinois team 7-0. We can’t look back, we have to look forward.”
Prior to this match, UT won a 4-3 match against No. 21 Ole Miss which earned them a bid into the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
The Vols are now 4-2 and are preparing to host No. 10 Duke on Saturday. Tennessee will then travel to Charlottesville next week where they will play in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
