LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Lipscomb men’s tennis team took a road trip to Louisville on Friday and opened up their spring season with a 5-1 loss against the Cardinals.
The Bisons (0-1) started off the match by winning the doubles point with a great battle from one of the three pairs.
Francesco Tacconi and David Skrabut, on the third line, lost 6-2, but Victor Chaw and Pablo Caffarena pulled out a 6-4 victory in the No. 1 spot.
Both teams then stayed on the sidelines to watch the last-standing doubles teams battle for the doubles point.
Lipscomb’s Jorge Ortegon and Pedro Uribe started the match falling behind the Cardinals’ lead, but they kept calm and continued to fight.
The Bisons duo squeaked out a 7-6 win against the Cardinals to clinch the doubles point.
“The doubles, we really just kind of taken charge of that area of the game,” Bisons head coach Geoff Hernandez said. “We really believed in ourselves and our confidence was high.”
After taking the doubles point, the Bisons brought their confidence into singles play hoping to win at least three of the singles matches to take home the overall victory.
But Louisville had other plans and dispatched the Bisons with five singles wins to take the match, 5-1.
Victor Chaw, playing in the No. 1 spot, was aggressive and drew out his match against Louisville’s Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff, which resulted in an unfinished play due to the losses of his teammates.
Francesco Tacconi brought the Bisons and the Cardinals to an overall tie of 1-1 when he lost both sets.
Pablo Caffarena was the first to start his singles match with a leading point. However, a loss of both sets ended up giving Louisville a 2-1 lead, and then Pedro Uribe lost his match to Louisville’s Federico Gomez to drop to 3-1.
Jorge Ortegon, at the four spot, fought hard in both doubles and singles. Although Ortegon lost the first set, he pushed himself further in the second set with a constant back-and-forth with his opponent. Unfortunately, he lost the second set 7-5, which clinched the match for the Cardinals.
Coming in close after Ortegon’s loss, David Skrabut also lost to officially give Louisville the 5-1 victory.
“Everyone was competing well [in singles],” Hernandez said. “We talked about setting our season in a certain direction, and we did that tonight,playing-wise.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted, but we are leaving Louisville playing very confidently.”
Lipscomb will take on Austin Peay next Friday, Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. in Clarksville.