NORFOLK, Va. – North Carolina A&T concluded its men's tennis regular season on Tuesday with a 5-2 win over Norfolk State at the NSU Tennis Complex. The Aggies finish the regular season 16-2, setting the program record for single-season victories. Norfolk State, the Aggies former Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, mate, ended its season at 3-15.
But the Aggies are firmly secure in the Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA) and will open the conference tournament on Friday at William & Mary's Mackesy Tennis Center. The Aggies will enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed and open with the fourth-seeded Drexel Dragons at noon on Friday. The CAA Seeding Committee utilized the following criteria: head-to-head, mutual opponents, ITA top 100, UTR and the Coaches' recommended seeding order to seed the tournament.
"It was a great win today for our team," said A&T graduate player Vasil Ivanov. "Everyone showed great effort and energy, and I believe we are headed in the right direction in preparation for the conference tournament." We will have a couple of more days to prepare before it's showtime. We're really excited about that."
If the Aggies win on Friday against the Dragos, they will play at noon on Saturday against either top-seed UNC Wilmington or the winner of the No.8/9 match between College of Charleston and Hofstra. The match takes place on Thursday.
In their final tune-up against the Spartans before the tournament, the Aggies swept the three doubles matches to earn the doubles point. At No. 3 doubles, Ian Pedersen and Dussauabat took down Saadiq Hinton and Ibrahim Abbas 6-1 to open the afternoon. Pedersen and Dussaubat have the best doubles winning percentage on the team with an 8-4 (.667) record.
The No. 1 tandem of Ivanov and Esteban Lopez earned a 6-2 victory over Federico Rebecchini and Adam Kaczmarek. They are 9-7 heading into the tournament. For good measure, Eder Blanco and Alex Martinez improved to 10-7 on the season with a 6-2 win over Boris Lunin and Hugo Massoni Lena. Blanco and Martinez lead the team in doubles wins.
"The whole team did a great job of dominating from the beginning," said Martinez. "The doubles were a complete domination on every court. We didn't do such a good job on the transition to the singles, and the energy went down a little. But, we did a good job of picking it up and taking care of business."
The Spartans did win two doubles matches, but not before the Aggies had already secured victory. Martinez got it going for the Aggies with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles over Abbas. Martinez completed the regular season at 14-3. Dussaubat made quick work of Hinton with a 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6 singles for a 3-0 Aggies lead. Dussaubat snapped a two-match losing streak to improve to 10-5 on the season.
But Norfolk got on the board when Lopez dropped to 11-6 on the season with a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Rebecchini. But the Aggies all-time leader in singles wins, Ivanov, guaranteed the victory for the Aggies with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Kaczmarek. Ivanov improved to 14-2 on the season and 47-27 for his career. However, Norfolk did score again at No. 5 singles as Lunin defeated Ethan Baly 7-5, 3-6, 10-6.
But Blanco sent the Aggies off to Williamsburg on a high note with a thrilling 5-7, 6-3, 11-9 win at No. 2 singles over Lena. Blanco's ninth straight win in singles play certainly did not come easy. He trailed Lena 8-3 in the super tiebreaker, with Lena having two serves to beat Blanco. But Blanco broke those serves to rally to improve to 15-2 on the season. He is one win shy of tying the program record for single-season singles wins held by Damon Martin at 16.
A&T comes into the tournament with a CAA win over the tournament's No. 6 seed, Delaware, 4-3 on March 30. The Aggies have CAA losses to top seed UNCW on April 11 (4-0) and No. 3 seed Elon (6-1) on April 21. The Dragons are 9-10 on the season and are winners of four straight. They are 3-1 against CAA teams, including a 4-3 loss to No. 2 seed William & Mary. Drexel also beat Delaware 4-3.
"It wasn't an easy day to play, so I made sure I was solid and thoughtful with all of my shots," said Martinez. "I stayed very focused during the whole match, even when my opponent tried to get in my head. We got a good win and great practice for this week's tournament. We have to keep this energy up."
