CHARLESTON, Ill – This Saturday (Jan. 30) both Eastern Illinois University Tennis squads are set to take on the SIUE Cougars at 3 pm (CST) at the Edwardsville YMCA in Edwardsville, Ill. 

The men are 1-1 in the early going after falling to Purdue in their season opener and then defeating IPFW, 5-2, last Sunday afternoon. 

“I thought the guys showed some improvement against a pretty tenacious team in IPFW last weekend," said head coach John Blackburn.  "There were a lot of close matches that we were able to pull out, which is definitely something we can look to build on. We'll look to keep that going tomorrow against SIUE.”

Last weekend, Jeff Rutherford, the lone Panther senior at the top of the lineup, defeated IPFW's Fransisco Sigaud in straight sets (6-1, 6-3). At No. 2 singles, Matyas Hilgert put up his first win of the season defeating former Panther and a transfer to IPFW, Felipe Gama, in three sets. Rutherford and Hilgert then teamed up to win at No. 1 doubles over Sigaud and Gama (8-5).

Other Eastern winners included Warren Race, who picked up his first win of the season at No. 4 singles, and Justin Haag improved to 2-0 on the year winning his No. 6 singles bout. Haag and Jamie Firth picked up a win for the Panthers at No. 2 duos. 

The dual against EIU will open the SIUE men's spring dual season.  The Cougars squads are currently transitioning to NCAA Division I-A status and won't officially compete as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference until spring of 2012.

Meanwhile, the EIU women will be playing its second match of the season after falling 5-2 to IPFW in its season-opening match last weekend. Juliana Frey defeated IPFW's Yuka Kobayashi (6-3, 3-6, 6-4), while newcomer Merritt Whitley picked up the squad's only other singles win, as she took down her opponent in three sets at No. 4 singles. 

“I thought the girls brought a lot to the table emotionally last weekend," said Blackburn.  "But we are capable of playing a lot better than what we did. We've been working hard this week in practice so we're hoping for a big step forward from our first match to the second. SIUE has a tough team that plays very hard, so it should be an exciting match tomorrow.”

The Panther women will be looking for their first win of the season against the SIUE women who are currently 2-3 on the early indoor season. 

Next up, both the men and women will travel to the Sunset Tennis Center in St. Louis, Mo. next Friday (Feb. 5) for their next matches against the Billikens of Saint Louis University. 

... story by Alan Scarabello, EIU Sports Info Intern