Hogs End Road Trip with 4-2 Win over Penn

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –  The Arkansas men’s tennis team (5-1) bounced back from its loss to Yale yesterday with a 4-2 win over Penn (2-1) Saturday afternoon at Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn.

The Quakers took the early advantage in doubles with a victory on court one as No. 8 Graziani/Sandler def. No. 36 Connor Smillie/Jakub Vrba, 6-4. Penn claimed the doubles point after a 7-5 win from S. Bharadwaj/Vales against No. 67 Padgham/Weintraub in the No. 2 position. On court three, Brendan Boland and Dmitry Kopilevich’s match went unfinished with the Razorback duo clinging to a 6-5 lead over P. Bharadwaj/Rutter.

The Razorbacks quickly responded by taking the first set on five courts and eventually securing the match with four singles victories. On court three Gabriel Elicha Navas improved to 5-1 this spring after a 6-4, 6-4 win against S. Bharadwaj. The Quakers took the lead back following a 6-3, 6-3 victor from Vale over Padgham at the No. 6 position.

The Hogs tied the match up at 2-2 after Dmitry Kopilevich took down Rutter 6-3, 7-6 on court five. No. 18 Vrba had a hotly contested match with Graziani end in a 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 win for the highest ranked Arkansas player. Sophomore Ben Weintraub clinched the match for the Razorbacks on court four as he fended off a comeback attempt from Sandler, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

Palovic’s match went unfinished as he was looking to finish off the match with Butera in the second set.

Arkansas returns to Billingsley Tennis Center on Friday, Feb. 6 to host San Diego State at 5:30 p.m. before a match with Oklahoma State on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m.

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