Men's Tennis | 3/27/2025 9:10:00 PM
Box Score
GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T and UNC Greensboro put on an incredible, heated men's tennis match that one could only expect from two intracity Division I rivals.
On Thursday, UNC Greensboro narrowly escaped with a 4-3 over North Carolina A&T at the UNCG Tennis Courts. The Aggies dropped to 12-3 during the 2025 season, which resulted in a heartbreaking defeat. The Spartans are 8-10.
The Spartans gained the advantage early by taking the doubles point. That adventure started with a win at No. 2 doubles. The Spartans' William Elmers and Luke Thomson won 6-0 over the A&T duo of freshman Jindrich Brill and sophomore Lucas Coupo-Moison. UNCG clinched with a win at No. 3 as Andrew Black and Devon Moskowitz defeated sophomore Kaua Santos and junior Mathieu Dussaubat 6-3.
Senior Ian Pedersen and sophomore Said Akbarov started their No. 1 doubles match against UNCG's John Gabelic and Tymofiy Khrystyuk. The A&T team led 4-3, but the match went unfinished because the Spartans had already clinched the doubles point.
Akbarov was able to complete his singles match. Despite the doubles setback, the Aggies evened the match when Akbarov defeated Thomson at No. 3 singles, 6-1, 6-2. Santos moved to 11-2 during the season and 4-0 at No. 3 singles. Coupo-Moison played at No. 1 singles but lost to UNCG No. 1, Khrystyuk, 6-1, 6-2. The Spartans gained another point at No. 4 singles with Black defeating Santos 6-3, 6-0.
But Pedersen, who has a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) co-player of the week honor to his credit this season and who has been Mr. Reliable for A&T in 2024-25, came through again at No. 2 singles. Pedersen knocked off Gabelic 6-4, 6-3 to keep A&T in the match. It was career win No. 48. It also improved Pedersen to an impressive 7-0 at the No. 2 singles position.
However, UNCG claimed the match thanks to a win at No. 5 singles. Moskowitz survived a second-set tiebreaker to defeat Brill, 6-3, 7-6, 7-3 in the tiebreaker. The Moskowitz/Brill duel happened during an entertaining No. 6 singles match between Dussaubat and Elmers. Elmers won the first set 6-4 before Dussaubat responded with a 6-4 win in the second. Dussaubat moved his record to 11-4 with a 7-6, 7-4 win in the tiebreaker victory over Elmers.
The Aggies will try to return to their winning ways Friday when they welcome the Hampton Pirates to the Piedmont Indoor Center for a 2 p.m. CAA matchup.
