CHENEY, Wash.-- The Eastern Washington University men's tennis team hosted its first home match of the 2019 season today (Feb. 1) when they played the visiting Sacramento State Hornets to a loss of 4-3. The Eagles now have a 0-3 overall record.

With the loss, the Eagles drop to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in Big Sky Conference play. The Hornets improve to 1-1 on the season with a 1-0 mark in the BSC.

"Our first home match of the year on our new Eagle red courts was a nail biter," said head coach Steve Clark. "We had multiple break points to settle the score in doubles play, but fell short and lost the doubles point. With grit we fought to a 3-2 match lead in singles, but with the nature of tennis scoring and no time clock, comebacks happen and we came back and also lost leads. It turned out to be a tough loss rather than the thrill of victory with teammates piling on top of you."

Official Match Results

Doubles Results
Losbergs/Chabut def. Mikayel Khachatryan/Jeremy Field 6-3
Hall/Snowdon-Poole def. Manuel Balce/Martin Bats 7-6
Legaspi/Miller def. Jeremy Mueller/Jan Lajos 6-4

Singles Results
Losebergs def. Mikayel Khachatryan 6-4, 6-0
Jeremy Field def. Miller 6-1, 6-2
Manuel Balce def. Chabut 6-7, 7-5, 6-2
Martin Bats def. Gjerdaker 5-7, 6-4, 7-5
Legaspi def. Jeremy Mueller 6-3, 6-4
Hall def. Jan Lajos 5-7, 6-1, 6-1

The Eagles take a short break from competition before returning to play Weber State (Feb. 23) in Ogden, Utah.

More Comments From Head Coach Steve Clark
On Top Performances: "My hat is off to Manuel Balce, in his first college match he won in a critical three-set match. Jeremy Field took down his opponent he lost to last year in a decisive two sets. Martin Bats also rallied from a set down and a break to win his match."

On Moving Forward: "We have to let this sting enough to motivate us to get better in key areas. If we don't, the pain will be for not. Grit on."