Feb. 15, 2009

Fayetteville, Ark. The Pacific men's tennis team suffered a 6-1 loss to No. 47 Arkansas on Sunday, Feb. 15.

Pacific lost the first point of the day in doubles matches against Arkansas. Pacific's junior Renan Delsin (Santa Cruz da Conceicao, Brazil) and senior Moritz Starke (Bamberg, Germany) had the only victory in doubles competition for the Tigers defeating the 14th-ranked team in the nation, Arkansas' Blake Strode and Matt Hogan, 8-5 at the No. 1 position. However, before this finish Pacific had already dropped the No. 2 and No. 3 position matches, both 8-5.

The Tigers opened singles action with a win from freshman Christian Kuehne (Morbach, Germany) in the No. 6 position where he brought down the Razorbacks' Bradwin Williams, 6-3, 6-1.

The rest of the day proved to be a more difficult battle for the Tigers. Junior Vegerd Veskimagi (Saku, Estonia) pushed the Razorback's Dmitry Lebedev to a tie breaker in their second set, 6-4, 7-6 (3). Then senior Moritz Starke (Bamberg, Germany) combated Arkansas' nationally ranked No. 15 Blake Strode in two sets that led to a tie breaker, 7-5, 7-6(1), but it was not enough to capture the point for Pacific.

To conclude the day, red-shirt sophomore Artem Gramma (Krivoj Roj, Ukraine) took on Arkansas' 39th-ranked Matt Hogan in three sets. Gramma lost the first, 6-4, then pushed back winning 4-6, this led to the third set where Hogan won the set 6-1, and the final point for Arkansas.

The Tigers return to action on Monday, Feb. 16 as Pacific takes on Oklahoma at 12 p.m. in Norman, Oklahoma.

Men's Tennis Results
#47 Arkansas 6, Pacific 1
Fayetteville, Ark.

Doubles (Arkansas wins doubles point, 2-1)
1. Mortiz Starke / Renan Delsin (PAC) def. #14 Blake Strode / Matt Hogan (UA), 8-5
2. Chris Nott / Dmitry Lebedev (UA) def. Artem Gramma / Ryan Kim (PAC), 8-5
3. Tyler Tarnasky / Bradwin Williams (UA) def. Karl-Erik Paaro / Christian Kuehne (PAC), 8-5

Order of finish:
3, 2, 1

Singles
1. #15 Blake Strode (UA) def. Moritz Starke (PAC), 7-5, 7-6(1)
2. #39 Matt Hogan (UA) def. Artem Gramma (PAC), 6-4, 4-6, 6-1
3. Chris Nott (UA) def. Renan Delsin (PAC), 6-4, 6-4
4. Dmitry Lebedev (UA) def. Vegerd Veskimagi (PAC), 6-4, 7-6(3)
5. Tyler Tarnasky (UA) def. Karl-Erik Paaro (PAC), 6-3, 6-3
6. Christian Kuehne (PAC) def. Bradwin Williams (UA), 6-3, 6-1

Order of finish:
6, 3, 5, 4, 1, 2