Men's Tennis Loses to Kentucky

Saturday, February 2

Louisville Tennis Club

5:00 PM ET

University of Louisville

Kentucky

February 02, 2002 | Men's Tennis

Feb. 2, 2002

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville men's tennis team lost to No. 23 Kentucky 7-0 Saturday at the Louisville Tennis Club. U of L is currently ranked No. 51 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings.

In doubles, Louisville's Cody Conley and Octavian Nicodim lost to Karim Benmansour and Evan Austin 8-6 at the top seed, while Jesse Witten and Rahim Esmail teamed to defeat Louisville's Alex Sivertsen and Adam Maskill 8-5 at No. 2. Kentucky's Matt Emery and Gustav Pousette completed the doubles sweep with an 8-3 win over Matt Mayer and Brent McCombe.

In singles action, Witten, who is ranked tenth in the nation in singles, outlasted Louisville's Conley 7-6, 7-6 at the top seed. Sivertsen fell to Benmansour 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2. Carvalho lost to Emery in the only match to go three sets 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 at No. 3. Nicodim lost to Austin 6-4, 6-3 at the four spot, while Mayer fell to Pousette 6-4, 6-2 at No. 5 and McCombe lost 6-3, 6-4 to Esmail at the six seed.

Kentucky improves to 5-0 on the season.

"We have to give credit to Kentucky," said U of L head coach Rex Ecarma. "This is the best UK team I've seen since the 1992 SEC champion team. We fought hard, but they played great on the big points. Cody Conley and Paulo Carvalho both had chances to win, but couldn't convert against this Kentucky team."

The Cardinals (3-2) will play host to No. 12 Southern California on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center at 5:00 p.m.

Louisville men's tennis results 2/2/02
Kentucky 7Louisville 0
SINGLES1 - Jesse Witten (UK) d. Cody Conley (UL) 7-6, 7-62 - Karim Benmansour (UK) d. Alex Sivertsen (UL) 6-3, 6-13 - Matt Emery (UK) d. Paulo Carvalho (UL) 6-4, 3-6, 7-54 - Evan Austin (UK) d. Octavian Nicodim (UL) 6-4, 6-35 - Gustav Pousette (UK) d. Matt Mayer (UL) 6-4, 6-26 - Rahim Esmail (UK) d. Brent McCombe (UL) 6-3, 6-4
DOUBLES1 - Benmansour/Austin (UK) d. Conley/Nicodim (UL)  8-62 - Witten/Esmail (UK) d.Sivertsen/Adam Maskill (UL) 8-53 - Emery/Pousette (UK) d. Mayer/McCombe (UL) 8-3