Milligan College, TN – The University of Pikeville men's tennis team lost their match on Sunday afternoon at Milligan University, 4-3. It was a hard fought dual between the squads as it came down to the final match to determine the winner, where ultimately the Buffaloes came away with the victory.

Valentin Ortiz picked up his first singles victory as a Bear this afternoon while Mirko Dedich and Juan Diego Alzate also picked up wins in singles play. Dedich and Alzate move to 2-0 in singles play this season. UPIKE falls to 0-2 after the loss and will return to action at Indiana University Southeast on Saturday.

How It Happened
Milligan won all three doubles matches to take the 1-0 lead heading into singles play. A 6-0, 6-2 victory for Alzate at No. 2 tied the match at 1-1 before a pair of wins at No. 6 and No. 5 put the Buffaloes just one win away from the dual win.

However, the Bears wouldn't go down easily as Ortiz took the win at No. 1 (6-2, 6-2) and Dedich cruised to a win at No. 3 (6-0, 6-2) to tie things up at 3-3. This left the match at No. 4 to determine the fate of the dual, but despite a great effort from UPIKE, Milligan took the match 6-3, 7-6 (7) and won the dual 4-3.

What's Up Next
As mentioned, UPIKE will be back in action when they travel to New Albany, IN to take on the Indiana University Southeast Grenadiers at a time to be announced.