OAKLAND CITY, Ind. - University of Pikeville men's tennis moved to 2-1 on the season after a 4-3 road victory over No. 15 Oakland City University Saturday.  

The Mighty Oaks took the first match in doubles play, winning 6-1 over UPIKE's Alfonso Robinson and Anton Hofman. The duo of Juan Diego Alzate and Paulo Castillo knotted the doubles score at 1-1 with a 6-1 victory over OCU's Juanes Pinto and Christian Salmeron. UPIKE took the doubles team point after Timur Chsherbukov and Mateo Vargas won 6-2 over Willem Cilliers and Sebastian Bahamondes.  

In the singles matches, the Bears fell behind early after Anton Hofman was defeated 1-6, 1-6 by OCU's Francisco Perez. Timur Chsherbukov was defeated 3-6, 4-6 in the next match, giving the Oaks a 2-1 team lead. Juan Diego Alzate got the Bears right back in it with a close, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Juanes Pinto to knot the team score at 2-2. The Mighty Oaks took back the team score lead after Christian Salmeron won 3-6, 6-3, 4-6 over Paulo Castillo.  

With the match on the line, Alfonso Robinson faced off against Tomas Ojeda. Ojeda took the first set 1-6, but Robinson would take the match and singles point after winning sets two and three 6-3 and 7-6, respectively. With the match knotted at 3-3, it came down to Mateo Vargas and OCU's Benedikt Wittman. Vargas took the first set 6-2, but Wittman sent it to a third set after a 6-7 win in set two. Vargas took the third set, the team point, and won the match for the Bears with an impressive, 6-1 victory.  

Next up for the Bears is a bout with No. 2 Tennessee Wesleyan on Thursday at Bob Amos Park. Thursday's match with TWU will also be the program's first-ever AAC match.  

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