In a battle of top-20 teams Sunday, the No. 19 Kentucky men?s tennis team fell 4-3 to No. 15 Ohio State at the Lexington Tennis Club. In defeat, the Cats’ three ranked singles players and one ranked doubles team notched wins.
The day began with UK losing the doubles point which would eventually cost the team the match. The Buckeyes first doubles win came when Scott Green and Ross Wilson, the 2nd-ranked doubles team in the country, defeated UK?s Bruno Agostinelli and Marcus Sundh 8-6. OSU claimed the point when Devin Mullings and Chris Klingemann held off Kentucky?s duo of Greg Johnstone and Gregory Anderson. Down 4-7, Johnstone and Anderson mounted a furious comeback before falling 9-7.
The Cats? 40th-ranked duo of Nate Emge and Alex Hume continued their strong play together by defeating the team of Drew Eberly and Bryan Koniecko 9-7.
OSU went on to clinch the match by winning the first three singles contests. The OSU victories came from their No.4-6 spots in the lineup.
Kentucky finished strong by winning the final three matches against the Buckeyes. The 48th-ranked Bruno Agostinelli handled No. 56 Mullings 6-4, 6-4. The 83rd-ranked Nate Emge topped Steve Moneke 7-5, 6-3. After dropping the first set 3-6, No. 61 Alex Hume came back to win the final two sets 6-3, 6-4.
?There were a lot of positives that we can take from this match for the rest of our season,? head coach Dennis Emery said. ?Ohio State is a very deep team that benefited from playing against a ranked team like Tennessee (last week). In most cases, when we win spots one through three we are going to come out on top.?
Kentucky will now be off until Feb. 17 when they face North Carolina State at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.
Ohio State def. Kentucky 4-3
Doubles
1. Green/Wilson (OSU) def. Agostinelli/Sundh – 8-6
2. Hume/Emge (UK) def. Eberly/Koniecko (OSU) – 9-7
3. Klingemann/Mullings (OSU) def. Anderson/Johnstone (UK) – 9-7
Singles
1. Bruno Agonstinelli (UK) def. Devin Mullings (OSU) – 6-4, 6-4
2 Alex Hume (UK) def. Bryan Koniecko (OSU) – 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
3. Nate Emge (UK) def. Steven Moneke (OSU) – 7-5, 6-3
4. Chris Klingemann (OSU) def. Greg Johnstone (OSU) – 6-2, 6-2
5. Ross Wilson (OSU) def. Marcus Sundh (UK) – 6-3, 6-3
6. Dennis Mertens (OSU) def. Carey Rubin (UK) – 7-6, 6-2
