LEXINGTON, Ky. ? The Kentucky men?s tennis team suffered its first loss of the early season as the No. 48 Wildcats came up short in a tightly-contested match 4-3 to the No. 36 Hurricanes of Miami Sunday at the Boone Tennis Complex.

Doubles play opened the day with the headline match pitting No.21 Bruno Agostinelli and Brad Cox of Kentucky versus Miami?s No. 40 Daniel Vallverdu and David Rosenfeld. The UK duo had seen Vallverdu in doubles play before at the Southeast Region Indoors last fall, dropping a semifinal match to the Hurricane and his then-partner Carl Sundberg. Vallverdu and the Canes once again got the better of the Cats pulling away at the end of the match to win 8-4 and clinch the doubles point.

The Cats bounced back in singles to take the first two matches of the day. Freshman Cox took care of Sundberg in two quick sets 6-1, 6-1. Senior Will Ward remained undefeated on the year with his impressive 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 98 Rosenfeld.

Miami?s No. 7 Vallverdu defeated No. 21 Agostinelli at No. 1 singles 6-3, 7-5 to even the dual match at 2-2.

Despite the tie, UK looked confident after senior captain Marcus Sundh evened his match at one set apiece and freshman Alberto Gonzalez took his first set at 6-1. However, the Cats couldn?t hold on as Sundh fell in the third set 6-3. Later, Gonzalez dropped his third set with the same score after losing the second in a tie break.

Junior Shane Collins continued his strong early-season play by coming back to even his match in No. 6 singles at one set each and won the third-set tiebreaker 10-7 to give the Cats their third point of the day.

The Cats fall to 4-1 on the year while the Hurricanes, coached by Kentucky tennis alum Marc Rincon, improve to 4-1.

Kentucky has a short break before traveling to Bloomington, Ind., to take on Indiana Tuesday afternoon with the first serve set at 4:00 p.m. ET.

No. 36 Miami 4, No. 48 Kentucky 3


Singles

1. No. 7 Daniel Vallverdu (UM) d. No.31 Bruno Agostinelli (UK) 6-3, 7-5
2. Will Ward (UK) d. No. 98 David Rosenfeld (UM) 6-2, 6-3
3. Vivek Subramanian (UM) d. Marcus Sundh (UK) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
4. Brad Cox (UK) d. Carl Sundberg (UM) 6-1, 6-1
5. Keith Crawley (UM) d. Alberto Gonzalez (UK) 1-6, 7-6, 6-3
6. Shane Collins (UK ) d. J. C. Whitner (UM) 4-6, 6-4, 1-0(7)

Doubles

1. No. 40 David Rosenfeld/Daniel Vallverdu (UM) d. No. 21 Bruno Agostinelli/Brad Cox (UK) 8-4
2. Marcus Sundh/Will Ward (UK) vs. Vivek Subramanian/Carl Sundberg (UM) 6-6, susp.
3. Barnabas Carrega/Hector Nieto (UM) d. Will Beck/Alberto Gonzalez (UK) 8-2