ORLANDO, Fla.— The North Carolina A&T men's tennis team faced its most formidable challenge of the 2024 season thus far and answered with a 5-2 win over Howard University at the USTA National Campus. A&T men's tennis is spending its spring break in Florida. For the first time this season, the Aggies lost a singles match, surrendering their first points of the season. 

Until playing the Bison, the Aggies had won all their matches 7-0. However, Bison took the lead against A&T early by claiming the doubles point. Howard's Justin Cadeau and Marcel Dawson defeated Esteban Lopez and Lucas Cuopo-Moison 6-0. The Aggies battled back to even the doubles series with a win at No. 3 doubles. 

Kaua Santos and Matthieu Dussaubat defeated Gabe Knowles and Daniel Dunac 6-2. The two teams battled for that doubles point with a terrific matchup at No. 2 doubles. Ian Pedersen and Said Akbarov lost to Howard's Hassimiyou Dieng and Mitchell Yon 6-4. 

"We had opportunities to win the match but didn't use them," said Akbarov. "We needed to give more energy at some point, and we just didn't do that." 

Junior Ethan Baly got the Aggies back on track with a win at No. 6 singles. Baly beat Knowles in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to even the score at 1-1. Akbarov gave the Aggies the lead even though he faced another difficult matchup at No. 4 singles. Akbarov found himself down 6-5 and 40-30 to Kendrick Lash, with Lash serving. But Akbarov broke Lash's serve twice to force a tiebreaker, which he won 7-3 over Lash. 

"I had some problems in the first set with my return and backhand," said Akbarov. I didn't stop fighting, so I was on him and playing my game on 100 percent level in the second set, and my backhand and return were on fire." 

Howard bounced back to tie the match at 2-2 with a win at No. 2 singles as Michael Major defeated Lucas Coupo-Moison 6-2, 6-4. It marked the Aggies' first singles loss of the season. But the Aggies regained the lead at No. 1 singles with Lopez. He defeated Dawson 6-2, 7-5. Santos brought it home for A&T with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Dieng to clinch the win with the 4-2 lead. 

"I did not play my best, but I kept my energy very high the entire match, which helped me and the team win," said Santos. 

Pedersen added a win for the Aggies at No.3 singles when he defeated Cadeau 6-2, 7-5. Pedersen took advantage of the opportunities Cadeau gave him, but he said his second set against Cadeau was utterly different. He trailed Cadeau 5-2 before breaking his serve and making a rally by scoring five straight points. 

The Aggies will continue play in Florida on Wednesday.