Men's Tennis | 4/9/2025 11:29:00 PM
Box Score BUIES CREEK, NC – The North Carolina A&T men's tennis team nearly moved to 2-0 against Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), but absent one of its key players, the Aggies fell short 4-3 against the Campbell Fighting Camels at Nesbitt Tennis Center on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the Aggies played without junior Mathieu Dussaubat, their No. 6 singles player and No. 3 doubles player. A&T replaced Dussaubat with senior Ethan Baly and Baly battled to a three-set decision at No. 6 singles before losing to Matias Lofink. Bailey's matchup is indicative of what became an extremely competitive match.
It started with doubles, where the Camels won at No. 3 singles. Luke Tollenaar and Alexander Fragasso defeated Bailey and sophomore Kaua Santos 6-1. But the Aggies evened the fight for the doubles point at No. 2 when sophomore Lucas Coupo-Moison and freshman Jindrich Brill beat the Campbell duo of Adi Dagan and Aleksander Hudjec 6-4.
The Coupo-Moison and Brill combination has produced an 11-3 record during the 2025 season. However, Campbell took the doubles point at the No. 1 position with Thomas Drapeau and Lofink defeating sophomore Said Akbarov and senior Ian Pedersen 6-4. The Akbarov/Pedersen duo dropped to 9-3 this season.
Singles became just as entertaining. Akbarov continued his superb season, improving to 15-2 this season with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Dagan at No. 3 singles. Akbarov has won six straight singles matches and leads the team in wins. He is 8-0 at No. 3 singles this season. He has a CAA co-player of the week to his credit during the 2025 season.
A&T took the lead when Brill defeated Hudjec at No. 5 singles with a 6-3, 6-1 win. Brill is on Akbarov's heels for most wins as he improved to 13-3. The Camels evened the match 2-2 with a win at No. 2 singles. Tollenaar defeated Pedersen 6-4, 6-3. A pivotal win toward the Aggies quest of defeating the Camels occurred at No. 1 singles, with Coupo-Moison defeating Drapeau 7-5, 7-6. Coupo-Moison is 10-7 this season and 6-4 at No. 1 singles.
However, Baly's loss at No. 6 singles tied the match 3-3 before a three-set showdown between Santos and Fragasso at No. 4 singles. Fragasso took the first set 6-4 before Santos evened the match 7-6. The match was still undecided deep into the third set between Fragasso and Santos. Fragasso eventually won 7-5 to improve the Camels to 7-11 overall and 1-3 against CAA opponents.
The Aggies are 13-5 this season and 1-1 against CAA programs.
A&T will face its second SEC school and its third Power Four this season when they travel to Columbia, SC, to face the University of South Carolina Gamecocks at 2 p.m., Friday, April 11.
