Men’s Tennis Splits the Day in Athens

The No. 39 Arkansas men’s tennis team finished its weekend road trip on Sunday in Athens, Ga. with a 4-0 loss to the No. 12 Georgia Bulldogs and a 4-0 win against North Carolina A&T.

The Razorbacks (13-7, 2-5) won one doubles match on the day, with No. 28 Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba outlasting Will Jansen and Gabriele Vulpitta 6-4. The pairings of Eric Padgham and Ben Weintraub and Brendan Boland and Dmitry Kopilevich both fell 6-4, which secured the doubles point for the Dawgs.

While Arkansas put up a great fight in singles and saw two first sets go into tiebreakers, the momentum quickly shifted the home team’s way. The Bulldogs (11-5, 4-4) tallied three straight victories: Will Jansen over Lukas Palovic 6-1, 6-4, Derrick Chen over Kopilevich 7-6 (3), 6-3 and Noah Johnston over Gabriel Elicha Navas 6-4, 6-4.

With the loss, the Razorbacks split their conference matches on the weekend, coming off a 4-3 victory at No. 59 Tennessee on Friday.

Arkansas originally had a second match scheduled against The Citadel on Sunday, but the contest was canceled due to weather. Instead, the Razorbacks squared off against the North Carolina A&T after the Aggies had already played Georgia. There was no doubles played, but Arkansas racked up four singles wins for a clean sweep: Arsene Pougault 6-0, 6-2, Boland 6-2, 6-3, Smillie 6-1, 6-1, and Padgham 6-1, 6-2.

The Razorbacks are back in action on Friday, March 20 with a match against the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge at 5:30 p.m. Arkansas then returns home for a conference tilt with No. 18 Auburn at Billingsley Tennis Center on Sunday, March 22 at 12 p.m.

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