March 24, 2008
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Auburn men's tennis team continued to be unsuccessful when losing the doubles point as it evened its SEC record to 3-3 after a 4-3 loss to No. 63 Kentucky Sunday in Lexington, Ky.
No 22 Auburn fell to 9-7 on the year following the loss while Kentucky moved to 7-9 and 2-4 in the SEC.
Alex Lambropoulos and Marcus Sundh started it off for the Wildcats in doubles with an 8-3 victory over Pawel Dilaj and Milan Krnjetin on court three, but Auburn was able to answer in No. 2 doubles as Tim Puetz and Lukas Marsoun defeated Will Beck and Shane Collins, 8-6.
The early point came down to a 7-3 tiebreak on court one as Bruno Agostinelli and Brad Cox took down Alexey Tsyrenov and Terence Nugent, 9-8.
Puetz put Auburn right back in the fight with a win in No. 2 singles over Cox, 6-2, 6-1, starting a back-and-forth battle for the match.
No. 48 Agostinelli defeated No. 35 Tsyrenov on court one, 6-4, 6-2, to put the Kentucky back on top, 2-1.
The Tigers once again tied the match thanks to Nugent's come-from-behind victory over Beck in three sets 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in No. 4 singles, but the tie was broken on court three in a three-set victory by Sundh over Marsoun 6-4, 6-3, 7-5.
Auburn threatened to tie the match a third time in a three-set match-up on court five, but the Wildcats' Alberto Gonzalez held on to defeat Dilaj, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, and clinched the victory for Kentucky.
Auburn found its third point on the play of Alex Petropoulos, who defeated Collins 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), but it was not enough as Auburn fell 4-3.
Auburn returns home to the Yarbrough Tennis Complex on Friday, March, 28, to face No. 10 Tennessee at 5 p.m. CT.