May 29, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. – The University of Kentucky men’s tennis duo of sophomore Eric Quigley (Pewee Valley, Ky.) and junior Brad Cox (Duluth, Ga.) bowed out of the NCAA Doubles Championships on Saturday following a 6-3, 6-1 setback to North Carolina’s Clay Donato and Stefan Hardy at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
The 19th-ranked Tar Heels pair led from start to finish, breaking the 22nd-ranked UK tandem’s serve once in the first set and three times in the second set en route to the straight-sets decision.
Kentucky’s appearance in the quarterfinal round of the doubles tournament was its first since Richard Benson and Greg Van Emburgh reached the semifinals in 1987.
The Quigley-Cox duo earned All-American status on Friday, winning its Sweet 16 matchup with a 6-3, 6-4 upset victory over the sixth-ranked pair of Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala from Texas. Quigley and Cox become UK’s first doubles All-Americans since Jesse Witten and Tigran Martirosyan achieved the feat in 2005.
Quigley also earned All-America status in singles play advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Singles Championships, before losing to Marcel Thiemann of Ole Miss, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-2 on Friday. Quigley becomes the youngest player in UK history to be named a singles and doubles All-American in the same year. He is one of five UK players to be named a singles and doubles All-American in the same season, joining Greg Van Emburgh (as a junior in 1987 and senior in 1988), Adam Milak (as a junior in 1989), Mahyar Goodarz (as a junior in 1993) and Witten (as a senior in 2005).
With the honors for Quigley and Cox, Kentucky has now seen 17 players earn All-America status 33 times during UK head coach Dennis Emery’s 28-year tenure.
Kentucky’s run through the singles and doubles tournaments caps off a standout season for the Wildcats. UK enjoyed its winningest season in program history during the 2010 campaign, posting a 25-9 mark and reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Championships for the fourth time in school history. The Wildcats lost to eventual national champion Southern California, 4-0, on May 21 in Athens.
