GREENSBORO—The North Carolina A&T played a close match on Thursday afternoon at the Piedmont Indoor Tennis Center but still won 4-3 over the Norfolk State Spartans. It was one of the Aggies' most competitive matches this season. 

Norfolk started the afternoon quickly. The Boris Lunin and Deniz Okyay Spartan duo defeated A&T's No. 1 doubles team, Esteban Lopez and Lucas Cuopo-Moison, 6-1. The Spartans claimed the doubles point at No. 3 doubles as Frederick McRae and Vladisav Gorbatenko defeated Ethan Baly and Kaua Santos 6-3. Thursday marked the first time Baly and Santos have played together. 

A&T did get one doubles win on Thursday as junior Ian Pedersen and freshman Said Akbarov beat Jakub Solarski and Antoni Pankowski 6-4. The Pedersen and Akbarov duo are 7-2. 

Cuopo-Moison evened the score at 1-1, winning by default to open singles play for the Aggies. Pedersen gave the Aggies a 2-1 lead by winning at No. 3 singles with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Jacob Solarski. Pedersen remains undefeated on the season at 10-0. Santos kept the momentum by defeating Pankowski at No. 5 singles, 6-2, 6-4. Santos improved to 11-1 during his freshman campaign. 

Lunin kept the Spartans alive, cutting the A&T lead to 3-2 with a No. 6 singles win over Baly, 6-1, 6-2. McRae evened the match at 3-3 by defeating Akbarov 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 at No. 4 singles. That result left the match in the hands of one of the best players in school history. 

Lopez secured his 41st career win and helped the Aggies improve to 11-1 on the season with a No. 1 singles win over Vladisav Gorbatenko 6-4, 7-5. Lopez improved to 11-1 on the season, with their only loss coming against Wake Forest, the fourth-ranked team in the nation.