EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Austin Peay picked up four singles wins, including the clinching match at No. 1 singles, and finished with a 4-3 victory over SIUE men's tennis Saturday at the SIUE Tennis Courts.

SIUE dropped to 2-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 7-7 overall. Austin Peay remained undefeated in OVC play at 3-0 and improved to 8-4 overall.

Dimitar Ristovski took the final point for the Governors with a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) win at No. 1 singles over Marten Jonsson.

"Morten had a tough match," said SIUE Head Coach Jason Coomer. "He was going toe to toe with his opponent today, but quite honestly, it should not have come down to his match. We failed to execute in other areas before that, and it came back to bite us in the end."

The Cougars held the lead early when the team grabbed the doubles point. Stephen Washuta and Nicolas Vincent bested Ristovski and Iago Seffrin at No. 1 doubles 8-6. Patrick Gaffigan and Matthew Hutchinson improved to 11-1 in dual matches with an 8-2 win over Manuel Montenegro and Oleg Drobysch.

"Stephen and Nicolas came out today and played extremely well just as Patrick and Matt did," Coomer said. "We feel really confident in our doubles play right now. We have not three but five good combinations we know we can put in at any time."

The singles matches proved more challenging for the Cougars. Gaffigan and Jacob Perkins were able to piece together victories in the singles. Gaffigan downed Drobysch 6-2, 6-4 at No. 6 singles while Perkins defeated Seffrin 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4 singles.

After the match, Coomer said he talked to his team about getting tougher.

"No one wants to hear they need to be tougher because that implies they're not tough enough," he said. "At the end of the today when we get the big points, we need to find a way to win those points. We are very capable of doing that. I expect that we will before the end of the season, but until we demonstrate on the court, I'm going to continue to talk about toughness."