EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE wrestling won three matches Sunday in its final Mid-American Conference home dual of the season, dropping a 32-10 meet to visiting Central Michigan.

"There were some bright spots," said SIUE Head Coach Jeremy Spates. "Overall, it was a little disappointing though. We felt like that was a winnable match. They're a tough team and have a lot of retrurning national qualifiers."

Sergio Villalobos got the Cougars off to a strong start with a scrappy 12-11 victory over Jordan Atienza at 184 pounds.

"Sergio set the tone," said Spates. "He came out and was offensive right away."

Central Michigan, 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the Mid-American Conference, won the next three matches, including three straight pins.

Justin Ruffin put the Cougars back on the scoreboard with a 3-2 win at 157 pounds. His third-period escape over Logan Parks proved to be the difference.

Nate Higgins added a major decision victory at 165 pounds, besting Bret Fedewa 14-4. Higgins used a six-point move in the first period to take control of the match and then recorded three more takedowns to seal the victory.

"That was a good win for Justin," said Spates. "It was great to see Nate because he's been so close in a lot of matches this season.

SIUE, 1-9 overall and 1-4 in the MAC, now heads to the road with its next league match set for Friday at Old Dominion.

Central Michigan 32 SIUE 10
184 - Sergio Villalobos (SIUE) over Jordan Atienza (CMU) (Dec 12-11)
197 - Landon Pelham (CMU) over Jake Godinez (SIUE) (Dec 5-1)
285 - Matt Stencel (CMU) over Colton McKiernan (SIUE) (Fall 5:42)
125 - Drew Hildebrandt (CMU) over Gage Datlovsky (SIUE) (Fall 6:27)
133 - Deven Perez (CMU) over Jacob Blaha (SIUE) (Fall 3:46)
141 - Andrew Marten (CMU) over Lucas Bernal (SIUE) (MD 11-2)
149 - Dresden Simon (CMU) over Tyshawn Williams (SIUE) (MD 12-4)
157 - Justin Ruffin (SIUE) over Logan Parks (CMU) (Dec 3-2)
165 - Nate Higgins (SIUE) over Bret Fedewa (CMU) (MD 14-4)
174 - Collin Lieber (CMU) over Kevin Gschwendtner (SIUE) (Dec 4-1)