Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
KENTUCKY
BGSU Hangs Tough With #16 Kentucky
April 10, 2002 | Men's Tennis
April 10, 2002
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Bowling Green State University men's tennis team gave the nationally-ranked University of Kentucky a battle, but the host Wildcats pulled out a 4-2 victory. The Wednesday (April 10) dual match was held in Lexington, Ky.
With the win, UK moves to 15-8 in dual-match play on the season, while the Falcons drop to 14-10 overall. Kentucky is 16th in the nation in the latest Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings (administered by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association) after being ranked ninth last week.
The Wildcats won at each of the top-four singles flights, while Falcon sophomore Joel Carney and senior Mike Kossoff won at the fifth and sixth levels, respectively. Each of the six matches required the minimum two sets.
Carney downed UK sophomore Matt Emery by scores of 6-1, 6-0 at the fifth flight. Kossoff lost only one game in each of his sets against junior Elliott Datlow.
Senior Vitek Wild, sophomore Milos Jirout, junior Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo and freshman Ian Bliss competed at flights one through four, respectively.
Kossoff's win upped his singles record to 22-10 this season, while Carney is now 21-9. They are the top-two Falcons in singles victories this season.
On the career list, Kossoff assumed sole possession of second place with his 89th singles victory. He had been deadlocked with Ryan Gabel (1995-98). Wild (94 singles wins) holds the school record.
Kossoff now has 152 total victories, again trailing only Wild (177) on that BGSU career list.
With UK holding a 4-2 lead, the teams did not play the doubles matches.
"We got two wins against a team that was ranked ninth in the country at the beginning of the day," said BGSU head coach Jay Harris. "And, Nicolas was very close to giving us a shot to win (the match) in the doubles.
"Nicolas was a little rusty, coming back after playing on red clay in the Davis Cup matches last week, but he fought hard and almost gave us a split of the singles.
"We feel very good about the team effort. Vitek played the fifth-ranked player in the nation, and Milos battled with a very good player at number two. We played without Geoff (Hiscox), who is battling an injury once again.
"The effort from Joel and Mike was outstanding. Those two guys have lost very few games over the last two matches, a collective seven games between them, which is pretty good considering we've played Western Michigan and Kentucky.
"I think this result, playing a ranked team that close without one of our top players, says a lot about our effort and how good we are. This will help us prepare for the most important part of our season, which is the MAC matches."
The Falcons return to MAC action with a Saturday (April 13) match at Northern Illinois.
#16 Kentucky 4, Bowling Green 2
Singles 1 - Jesse Witten (UK) def. Vitek Wild 6-4, 6-3 2 - Gustav Pousette (UK) def. Milos Jirout 6-4, 6-1 3 - Evan Austin (UK) def. Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo 7-5, 7-5 4 - Rahim Esmail (UK) def. Ian Bliss 6-2, 6-2 5 - Joel Carney (BGSU) def. Matt Emery 6-1, 6-0 6 - Mike Kossoff (BGSU) def. Elliott Datlow 6-1, 6-1Doubles - not played 1 - Lopez-Acevedo/Wild (BGSU) vs. Austin/Karim Benmansour 2 - Carney/Geoff Hiscox (BGSU) vs. Pousette/Johan Grunditz 3 - Bliss/Kossoff (BGSU) vs. Esmail/Witten
