Playing the ninth-ranked team in the nation on the road is something that few teams look forward to. But the men’s tennis team, propelled by coach Jay Harris and a will to show that they will fight until the end, played hard with Kentucky for an entire match before falling to the Wildcats 4-2 on Wednesday in Lexington.
The Falcons fell 14-10 on the season. Harris said the squad played very strong.
“We hung with those guys really well,” Harris said. “As a team, we felt really good.”
With Mid-American Conference Player of the Week Geoff Hiscox not playing because of injury, the Falcons were led in singles by sophomore Joel Carney and senior Mike Kossoff. Carney defeated Kentucky’s Matt Emery (6-0, 6-1), while Kossoff topped Elliot Datlow (6-1, 6-1). Kossoff said that as good as the Falcons played, they had the ability to win.
“We had them on the ropes,” Kossoff said. We went the distance with the ninth-ranked team in the nation, and I really feel that if we had gotten them to the doubles point, we would have beaten them.”
The format had singles going first, with doubles only being played if the teams were tied after six games. If the Falcons had won just one more game, they would have forced doubles, where BG has been dominant recently.
“In a way I think it’s too bad that we didn’t play the doubles first,” Harris said. “If we had won the doubles, that could have given us a nice boost going into the rest of the match.”
The Falcons will now prepare for their match on Saturday, on the road against Northern Illinois, a fellow MAC team that the Falcons defeated 7-0 last season.
“Northern Illinois is a very good team,” Harris said. “When we beat them last year, it was a match where we just played great. This year we just want to go there and play a great match.”
Kossoff said the team is on a mission and no team will be able to stop them.
Northern Illinois was good last year, and they are a little better this year, Kossoff said. “But they are just another obstacle on our way to the MAC title, and we are going to run over them just like we have everybody else.”
With only four matches remaining before the MAC tournament in Buffalo, Harris said that the Falcons still should be able to win all of their remaining contests.
I think that if we play well, that is what we are going to do,” Harris said. “If we don’t, we could have a hiccup. The good thing is that we are peaking at the right time as a team.”
The match against Northern Illinois will be at 1 p.m. After the match tomorrow, the Falcons will play a home match against Ball State on Wednesday and Buffalo next Friday.