CHARLOTTE, NC – North Carolina A&T has undoubtedly made a turn in the growth of its men's tennis program. The Aggies improved to 3-0 on Wednesday with a narrow 4-3 win over Queens University of Charlotte at the Howard Levine Tennis Center. 

The win ended the Royals five-match winning streak over the Aggies. The Aggies came close to beating the Royals last season in Charlotte, but a three-set loss at No. 5 singles by Ian Pedersen prevented the Aggies from winning in a 4-3 A&T loss. That would not be the case on Wednesday afternoon in Charlotte. 

Pedersen faced the same scenario he did a year ago. His match stood between victory and defeat for the Aggies. But déjà vu must have started to settle in for Pedersen at first. Pedersen lost the first set a year ago to Yoan Roussinov. Fast forward to Wednesday, and Queens' Arthur Bazil took the first set from Pedersen 6-2. 

But Pedersen was dominant from there. He won the next two sets 6-1, 6-2 to win the match 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 as Pedersen improved to 3-0 on the season. It was a good day for Pedersen as he also had the clinching win in doubles as he teamed with Mathieu Dussaubat to beat Bazil and Lukas Gosselin 6-3 at No. 3 doubles. 

Paired with Esteban Lopez and Vasil Ivanov's win at No. 1 doubles over Edoardo Bottino and Laurenz Blickwede 6-1 at No. 1 doubles, the Aggies took a 1-0 lead. Sophomore Eder Blanco gave the Aggies a 2-0 lead with a straight win over Win Steveker, 6-4, 6-3. Blanco's win avenged a loss to Steveker during the fall season at the Elon Invitational. 

Blanco and freshman Alex Martinez had the only loss in doubles, a 6-2 loss to Steveker and Edoardo Cecere at No. 2 doubles. "I am really proud of beating him," said Blanco about in singles win over Steveker. "I played really aggressively as always, and I literally just went through him." 

But the Royals rallied. Two Aggie staples, with many singles wins in their respective careers, lost on Wednesday with the program's all-time leader in singles wins, Ivanov, losing at No. 3 singles to Edoardo Cecere 6-2, 6-2. Lopez lost to Bottino 6-4, 7-6, and 5-0 in the tiebreaker to tie the match at 2-2. 

The Royals took the lead as Martinez lost a challenging three-setter to Blickwede, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. But Mathieu kept the Aggies alive with a 6-1, 6-4 straight-set win over Gosselin, setting up Pedersen's redemption from a year ago. 

"I'm really happy with Ian giving us the last point," said Blanco. "Mathieu's win was big, and I'm happy with the win from the guys in doubles. I'm especially happy with the beating them after losing to them last year and the past five years." 

A&T returns to action on Sunday, March 12, when they face Methodist University in a 1 p.m. match at the Dudley High School Tennis Courts.