WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – A remarkable season ended for the North Carolina A&T men's tennis team with a 4-0 loss to the Drexel Dragons during the quarterfinals of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Men's Tennis Championship Tournament at Mackesy Tennis Center on Friday.
The season ends with the Aggies finishing 16-3 overall. Their 16 wins are a modern-day record for the program. All three of A&T's losses during the spring came against CAA competition. Against non-conference opponents, the Aggies went 15-0 with five shutout victories. In addition, the Aggies went 10-0 at home between playing at the Dudley High School Tennis Courts and the Piedmont Indoor Center.
A&T entered the 2023 CAA tournament as the No. 5 seed and had to face the Dragons, who, through a process, came in as the fourth seed. Drexel, who improved to 10-10 on Friday, came into the tournament with a 3-1 record against CAA schools.
Friday started with singles competitions instead of doubles. But the doubles matches never occurred because the Dragons took four of the six singles matches. It began with Matvey Radinov defeating freshman Alex Martinez, 7-5, 6-2 at No. 4 singles. Martinez ends his first season in Aggieland at 14-4.
Hugo Brungs gave the Dragons a 2-0 lead with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Ian Pedersen. Pedersen ends the season at 14-3 after winning his first nine singles matches this season. He has 23 wins over the first two years of his career. Drexel got another win at No. 6 singles when Juan Manuel defeated Mathieu Dussaubat 6-2, 7-5. Dussaubat finishes his first season at A&T with a 10-6 mark in singles.
The clincher came at No. 1 singles when senior Esteban Lopez lost to Alan Jesudason 7-6 (7-2), 7-5. Lopez ends the season with three straight losses and an 11-7 record. He is 31-23 for his career with a possible COVID season in the wings.
One career definitely ended on Friday as Vasil Ivanov's final match in an Aggies uniform went unfinished. Ivanov lost the first set 6-0 before rebounding to win Set 2, 6-4. He trailed 5-4 in the third when the match ended. Ivanov is the program's all-time leader in singles wins with a 47-27 career record, including 14-2 this season. Ivanov went 32-39 in doubles competition.
The other unfinished match included the future of the Aggies program in No. 2 singles player Eder Blanco. Blanco lost the first set to Daniel Dudockin 6-2 before winning the second 6-4. The two ended their contest with Blanco trailing 2-1 in the third. Blanco is 29-7 over the first two years of his career.
A&T entered the 2023 season after an outstanding fall. They went on to win their first 13 matches of the spring.
