April 5, 2009
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Finishing its road weekend, the No. 27 Auburn men's tennis team (10-8, 3-5 SEC) fell to No. 4 Tennessee (18-3, 7-1 SEC), 4-1.
The Volunteers took the early lead and kept the momentum in singles play to take the victory.
Auburn dropped the doubles point to start the day. First to finish was the court three match-up as Matt Brewer and Bryan Swartz defeated Milan Krnjetin and Michel Monteiro, 8-4. The Vols clinched the point as Boris Conkic and Matteo Fago beat Auburn's Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev, 8-5, on court two.
Auburn's No. 11 duo of Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz were leading the No. 9 pair of John-Patrick Smith and Davey Sandgren, 8-7, but the match-up went unfinished as Tennessee had already claimed the point.
Moving into singles competition, the heat stayed with Tennessee. No. 9 Smith topped Auburn's No. 59 Tsyrenov, 6-1, 6-2, on the front court to build the Vols' lead to 2-0. On court five, Tennessee found another win as Brewer beat Krnjetin, 6-4, 6-3.
Finding Auburn's first win of the day was freshman Stamchev on court four. He defeated Sandgren, 6-4, 6-4, to log the Tigers' first and only mark on the scoreboard. Stamchev continues to be a solid presence for the team at the four-spot, holding a 7-3 mark in the position.
The Vols clinched the match as No. 33 Conkic earned a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 106 Puetz on court two.
The two remaining match-ups did not finish because Tennessee had already won the match.
On court three, Marsoun rebounded to split sets with Fago, 4-6, 6-4, while Petropoulos was behind in the second set after dropping the first against Christian Hansen, 6-4, 4-3.
The loss moves the Tigers to 10-8 overall and 3-5 in the SEC. Tennessee improves to 18-3 and 7-1 in conference play.
The Tigers' next action will come next weekend as they host No. 17 South Carolina and No. 10 Florida on Friday and Sunday, respectively. Auburn's Friday match is set to begin at 2 p.m. at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.