Men's Tennis | 10/13/2025 8:30:00 PM

RALEIGH, NC – North Carolina A&T head tennis coach Dejon Bivens described his men's program as "on fire."

Bold. But he can present evidence.

The Aggie men competed over the weekend in the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Professional Tennis Tour Tournament at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Courts. As has been the case throughout the fall, an Aggie won one of the draws. Graduate Ian Pedersen became the man in the spotlight over the weekend. He joins Jindrich Brill, Kaua Santos and Gabriel Linovic on the list of Aggies with a fall title in 2025.

Pedersen also has a doubles title to his credit during the fall with Brill at the University of North Carolina Charlotte's Charlotte Amateur. Pedersen also made the finals of the Charlotte Amateur singles B Draw. On Saturday, he advanced to the Flight B Main Draw by defeating Charlotte's Jack di Menna 7-6 (7-2), 6-4. In the finals, he won a three-set thriller over North Carolina Central University's (NCCU) Leo Fortier-Gariepy 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5 to claim the championship.

"Overall, it was a good tournament," Pedersen said. "Almost every match was a battle to three sets. I won some good rivalry matches."

 Santos also had a good showing at NCSU. Santos reached the quarterfinals on Sunday before losing to NCSU's Mike Lapalme 3-6, 6-4, and 10-8 in the tiebreaker. While the quarterfinal result did not go Santos's way, the competitiveness of the match did please the fourth-year head coach. Bivens compared Santos facing Lapalme as Santos "punching well above his weight."

The Universal Tennis Rating, a global scale rating system based on daily match results, has Lapalme rated at 11.94. Santos's rating is 11.04. Brill also competed for the Aggies over the weekend, losing to the University of North Carolina's Nicholas Mangiapane 6-1, 6-3 in the Flight A quarterfinals.

"I couldn't be prouder of our guys and the work they're putting in. Ian capped off an incredible weekend by winning the tournament. This group continues to prove that our mission is real. We're here to take down the so-called Power Four programs one-by-one and in the process take out our conference foes as well."

A&T will close out the fall season at the ITA Carolina Regionals and the Wake Forest Invitational. The ITAs will take place October 16-21 in Cary, NC, and Wake Forest will host its invitational from October 31-November 2.