By Stephen Mason
A struggling Tennessee men’s tennis team (6-7, 0-3 SEC) took a large step forward Friday when it faced off against No. 18 Auburn (10-1, 2-0 SEC); however, it was not quite far enough to put the Vols into the win column. After dropping their first two SEC matches at Kentucky and Vanderbilt, the Vols were looking to turn things around Friday night at the Barksdale Tennis Stadium and fell just short of that goal, falling to the Tigers 4-3.
In doubles play, Tennessee head coach Chris Woodruff sent out a new lineup once again. The team has struggled to put three solid pairs out on the court at the same time. While the Vols did not win the doubles point, they did push the Tigers harder than any other opponent they have faced in SEC play.
On Court 1, two of the Vols’ most veteran players, graduate Dragos Cazacu and senior Buruch Skierkier, took on the No. 20 doubles pair in the country, brothers Billy and Freddy Blaydes. It was a tight match between these two pairs; however, the Blaydes came away with the win.
On Court 2, two of the youngest members of the Tennessee roster, sophomore Piotr Siekanowicz and freshman Shion Itsusaki, played Nicholas Heng and Joey Phillips of the Tigers. While the Auburn duo pulled away early and led 5-1 at one point, the Vols duo battled back, winning four straight games. The match ended at 5-5 when doubles play concluded.
The Auburn Tigers clinched the doubles point on Court 3, where Tennessee’s senior Alejandro Moreno and sophomore Jan Kobierski matched up against Jake Kennedy and Hamza Nasridinov. Tennessee fell 6-4 in this match and headed to singles trailing 1-0.
The singles match turned into a heavyweight boxing match, and as the sun set and night fell, the teams started exchanging blows.
Tennessee landed the first punch when Kobierski took down F. Blaydes on Court 4 (6-4, 6-2), briefly tying the match. However, the Tigers quickly responded on Court 6 as Manel Lazaro defeated Itsusaki (7-5, 6-2).
Court 2 was the next to wrap up as Nicolas Garcia kept his dominant streak alive as he put away B. Blaydes (7-6, 6-2). This was Garcia’s seventh consecutive singles win, and the sophomore continues to be a reliable player for the Vols, despite the team’s recent struggles.
On the other three courts, the matches were not so lopsided, and all went to three sets. After dropping the first set 6-3 to Auburn’s Heng, Cazacu stormed back on Court 3 to win the second and third sets (6-3, 6-2), giving the Vols their first lead of the night.
Tennessee did not enjoy the advantage for long. After winning set one 6-3, Skierkier dropped the following two sets (6-0, 6-3) to Alan Bojarski. With the match tied at 3-3, all attention turned to Court 1, where the best players on both rosters faced off.
No. 58 Moreno faced off with No. 56 Nasridinov in what turned out to be a showdown of will. Revenge was on the mind of Moreno as the Knoxville native played for the Auburn Tigers for two years, and a good number of his family and friends were in attendance for this matchup.
The two players traded punches with Nasridinov taking set one 6-4 and Moreno swinging back and taking set two 6-3. While it appeared that all the momentum was on the Vols’ side, it was Nasridinov who landed the knockout punch, taking the third set 6-4 and securing the win for the Tigers.
This will certainly be a bitter loss for the team. While they looked improved from the team that played in Lexington and Nashville, especially in doubles play, they still came up just a little short against a top-20 team.
Up Next: Tennessee will return to Barksdale Tennis Stadium on Sunday when it continues its SEC schedule against Oklahoma at 11 a.m. That match will be followed by an evening matchup against in-state foe Belmont at 5 p.m.