Top-25 Louisville Too Much for Nationally-Ranked Men’s Tennis Saturday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In a top-75 non-conference matchup Saturday afternoon, the nationally-ranked Belmont University men's tennis team was handed a 7-0 loss at 23rd-ranked Louisville. The 74th-ranked Bruins (5-2) suffered their second consecutive setback at a Power Five conference opponent after managing just one doubles match win at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
 
After a tightly-contested victory at the top doubles spot to clinch the coveted doubles point, the host Cardinals (9-2) took all but one singles match in straight sets.
 
The No. 1 doubles duo of graduate student Marko Ilic and junior Riccardo Trione nearly upended 14th-ranked Fabien Salle and Natan Rodrigues in a 7-5 battle after junior Tomas Luis and sophomore Ian Cruz evened doubles play at the third position. Luis and Cruz defeated Louisville's Will Mayew and David Mizrahi 6-3 at No. 3 doubles. However, the Cardinals' Alex Wesbrooks and Matthew Fung gave Louisville an edge with a 6-3 win over senior Jack Randall and junior Alfred Wallin at No. 2 doubles.
 
In singles action, Trione and Ilic had the most competitive matches. Trione took the Cardinals' Sergio Hernandez to three sets at No. 4 singles, earning a 6-3 opening set win before narrowly falling 10-8 in the third set super tiebreak.
 
At No. 1 singles, Ilic gave 44th-ranked Rodrigues all he could handle in a 6-4, 6-4 loss. Wallin took four games off Louisville's Etienne Donnet, the 24th-ranked singles player in the nation, at the No. 2 spot.
 
The Cardinals gave up only a combined six games between No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 singles.
 
Up Next
Belmont closes out its weekend stay in Louisville Sunday morning at Bellarmine. First serve from the Eddie Weber Tennis Complex is slated for 11 a.m. CT/12 p.m. ET.
 
Follow Belmont men's tennis on social media – @BelmontMTennis on Twitter and @belmontmtennis on Instagram – for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the official app of the Belmont Bruins, available both in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.