Eastern Illinois men's and women's tennis continue Ohio Valley Conference action this weekend at home at the Rex Darling Courts.
The EIU men will face Belmont on Friday (1 pm) followed by Tennessee State on Saturday (1 pm). The EIU women will host Belmont at 4 pm on Friday.
The EIU men hosted Tennessee Tech last Friday at home marking the first time in nearly two years that EIU has played a home match in the spring season. EIU again shuffled its line-up but was competitive before falling to TTU. The Panthers are now 2-11 on the season, 0-2 in the OVC.
In the match
Thomas Wallace and
Christos Kyrillou were winning their match at No. 2 doubles when TTU clinched the doubles point to leave their contest unfinished.
Karan Srivastava moved up to play at No. 1 singles for the third time this season. The transfer has now played in all three of the top singles positions. He is one of three Panthers leading the team with three singles wins this year.
Charles Courteau and
Cameron Slabbert also have three wins in singles action.
EIU men's tennis will honor its three senior players prior to the match on Saturday -
Daniel Hernandez,
Juan Carlos Garrido, and
Quinn Camfield
Belmont enters at 8-2 overall, 1-1 in the OVC. Tennessee State is 0-8 on the year, 0-1 in the OVC.
The EIU women returned to the win column over the weekend as they stepped out of conference play to beat Chicago State. It was EIU's second win of the season as they improved to 2-9 overall, 0-2 in the OVC.
This week they will have only one conference match against Belmont (4-6 / 1-2 OVC) on Friday as Tennessee State currently has opted out of playing women's tennis this spring.
Rachel Papavasilopoulos returned to the Panthers line-up last week after a three week absence and picked up her seventh win of the season at No. 1 singles.
The return of Papavasilopoulos allowed EIU to shift its line-up back to the normal order with
Elizaveta Bukraba-Ulanova,
Christine Gouws and
Brittany Steven all picking up wins in the remaining top four singles positions. CSU defaulted the final two singles points.
