RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Sacramento State men’s tennis team won a pair of three-set matches in the middle of the order but fell just short in a 4-3 loss to UC Riverside, Sunday afternoon at the Student Rec Center Tennis Complex on the UCR campus.
The Hornets fell to 2-2 on the season with the loss while the Highlanders improved to 1-2.
UCR took the first point of the contest by winning the top two doubles matches. Both of the matches were close as Joe Cartledge and John Park teamed to defeat Anton Stryhas and Kiryl Harbatsiuk, 8-6, at No. 1 and Quoc Doan and Ahmad Shiraz downed Holden Ching and Ronan Conlon, 9-8 , at No. 2. Sacramento State easily won the third match, 8-1, behind the team of Artur Klimenka and Sven-David Rueff.
In singles play, Stryhas cruised to a 6-0, 6-1, win at No. 2 over Gorjan Kovacevic to even the team score and 1-1. UCR regained the lead with a pair of wins at the bottom of the ladder. Hakop Tadevosian beat Rueff, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 5 and Sebastian Ko beat Conlon, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 6 to give UCR a 3-1 lead.
Sacramento State battled back with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, win from Klimenka at No. 3. The team also added a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, victory from Ching at No. 5.
However, UCR clinched the victory at No. 1 where Cartledge outlasted Harbatsiuk, 7-6, 1-6, 6-4.
Sacramento State will have nearly two weeks off before returning to action against UC Davis on Feb. 23. The match against the Aggies will take place at Rio Del Oro Racquet Club and begin at 1 p.m.
