NORFOLK, Va. – The Tidewater area has been good to the North Carolina A&T men's tennis team thus far this week. A day after beating the Hampton Pirates, the Aggies followed with a 5-2 win over the Norfolk State Spartans on Tuesday at the NSU Tennis Complex.
The Aggies hope to continue their good time in the Tidewater area on Thursday. That is when they play their opening-round match of the 2024 CAA Men's Tennis Championship Tournament against the eighth-seeded College of Charleston Cougars at 9 a.m. from William & Mary's Mackesy Tennis Court. A&T enters the tournament 15-4 overall as the No. 9 seed and will play top-seeded UNC Wilmington on Friday at 9 a.m. if they defeat the Cougars.
"The team is ready to take on any team, and these last few days, we've seen that we are on the level to compete with anybody and win," said graduate Esteban Lopez. "It's exciting to play in the conference tournament, and I'm ready to take on College of Charleston on Thursday."
A&T's warm-up match against the Spartans started with a doubles loss at the No. 1 position. Lopez and freshman Lucas Coupo-Moison lost to Antoni Pankowski and Jakub Solarski 6-3. Coupo-Moison said Pankowski and Solarski played more consistently and took advantage of their opportunities better.
Junior Ian Pedersen and freshman Said Akbarov evened the doubles series with a 6-3 win over Boris Luinn and Deniz Okyay. Pedersen said he and Akbarov started the match sloppy but raised their level of play toward the end of the contest. The Aggies clinched the doubles point when freshman Kaua Santos and sophomore Mathieu Dussaubat defeated Vladisav Gorbatenko and Frederick McRae 6-4.
"We played with a lot of heart and fight," said Santos. "It was a tough match, but we played our best in the important moments." Dussaubat added: "We played a really good match with really good energy. We needed this match to boost our confidence a little bit, so I'm happy we won this match."
Lopez kept the momentum going with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Gorbatenko at No. 1 singles. He won his 46th career singles match, putting him one win shy of tying the program record with former teammate Vasil Ivanov. Lopez will need a win over Charleston on Thursday to tie the record. Lopez played Gorbatenko during the fall, so he knew how to play against him.
"I knew how to play him, and the things I did wrong before, I improved on them today, like staying on top of him during the match, which I did," said Lopez. "That helped me take care of business."
Lopez's doubles partner won at No. 2 singles over Solarski 6-2, 6-2 to give the Aggies a 3-0 lead. McRae kept the Spartans in the match by defeating Akbarov 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 at No. 4 singles. Santos clinched the win for A&T with a thrilling three-set victory over Pankowski, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. "I showed a lot of heart in singles to come back and bring the point for the team," said Santos.
NSU earned its final point at No. 6 singles when Luinn defeated Dussaubat 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. Dussaubat started well, putting balls into play, while Luinn struggled.
"I'm sad I went down mentally in the second set," said Dussaubat. "I could have won that match. I'm still happy the team won because it was a tough match, and we have to be ready mentally and physically for the CAA match we have on Thursday against College of Charleston."
A&T did end on a high note as they will travel a few miles down the road to Williamsburg, Va. Pedersen defeated Okyay at No. 3 singles, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
I also started sloppy in singles, but I found my rhythm and was able to win the match," said Pedersen. "This was the last match before our conference championship. I'm excited to go there and compete and do all the things I've been working on during the season."
