NORMAL, Ill. – Eastern Illinois men's tennis faced a busy Saturday as the Panthers played Bellarmine in the afternoon and Illinois State in the evening during a pair of matches in Normal.
EIU fell to 2-3 on the season after losing to Bellarmine, 5-2, and Illinois State, 6-1.  EIU had opened the week with a 5-2 win over Saint Louis on Thursday for the Panthers second win of the season.
In the opener EIU lost the doubles point as the Bellarmine won at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. The Panthers did win at No. 2 doubles with
Karan Srivastava and
Pau Riera picking up a 6-3 victory.
EIU's two points in the match came in singles play off the rackets of
Christos Kyrillou and
Charles Courteau. Kyrillou won in straight sets at No. 4 singles winning 6-3, 7-5, over Ian Deiters.
Courteau won at No. 5 singles with a straight set win over Sam Rueff, 6-3, 7-5.
Riera battled for EIU at No. 6 singles pushing his first set to a tiebreak before losing in two sets to Eli Franks, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.
In the night cap, Illinois State jumped out a 1-0 lead winning all three matches in doubles play.Â
The Redbirds would add to their point total with wins in the top five singles spots in the rotation.Â
Cameron Slabbert picked up the win for EIU winning in three sets over Shu-Lun Chang, 7-6, 1-6, 1-0 (14-12), in No. 6 singles action.
Courteau took his match at No. 4 singles to three sets against Pot Botifoll Rius before losing, 5-7, 6-1, 1-0 (14-12).
Riera lost his match at No. 5 singles in two sets but nearly forced a third set losing 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) in the tiebreak.
