HAMPTON – Junior North Carolina A&T men's tennis player
Kaua Santos survived doubles and singles, and as a result, the Aggies triumphed over the Hampton Pirates 5-2 Tuesday afternoon at the Hampton Tennis Center.
The Aggies snapped their three-match skid, improving to 10-5 overall. It marked their first matchup against Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) opponents this season. Santos has partnered with sophomore
Jindrich Brill 12 times this season, with Tuesday's No. 1 doubles match against Hampton's Aryan Arora and Rafael Padiha proving to be one of their toughest.
"We fought crazy together and turned over the match for us," Brill said.
Brill and Santos trailed Hampton 3-0 and 5-2 before mounting their comeback. They leveled the set 5-5 and, down 40-Love, rallied to win 7-5. The win boosts the duo's record to 9-3 this season.
"I'm proud of my partner for staying strong and battling with me," Santos said.
A&T needed that rally to win the doubles point because senior
Mathieu Dussaubat and freshman
Gabriel Linovic lost to Benedict Badza and Kohei Konishi 6-4. The Aggies gained an early advantage in doubles when freshmen
Illia Olefir and
Ben Werle defeated Jude Killikelly and Benjamin Mwanza 6-1 at No. 3 doubles. Hampton evened the score 1-1 after securing a win at No. 3 singles.
Konishi defeated Olefir 6-1, 6-1 before Linovic put A&T back in front with a straight set, 6-0, 6-2 win over Killikelly at No. 5 singles. Dussaubat increased A&T's lead to two with a straight set, 6-1, 6-0 win over Mwanza.
"The doubles was difficult as it was my first time playing with Lino, so we had to adapt during the match, and it didn't go our way," Dussaubat said about the start of his day. "The singles match I just tried to put more balls in than the other guy and attack the short balls to finish at the net, which worked in my favor. Overall, great win from the guys and happy that we came back with the win."
Hampton made it interesting when they grabbed the win at No. 4 singles, with Arora defeating Werle 6-2, 7-6, and 10-8 in the tiebreaker. That left the fate of the match in the matches played at No. 2 singles and No. 1 singles. Brill opened his No. 2 singles match with a 6-2 win over Badza before Badza forced a third set with a 7-5 win. The two men went back and forth in Set No. 3 before Brill finally prevailed.
Brill called the match a wild contest that demanded maximum effort every point. Santos sealed the win for the Aggies by rebounding from a 6-4 first-set loss to Padiha with 6-2, 6-3 victories in the next two sets.
"It was a very tricky match," said Santos. "I didn't play my best, but I followed every instruction (the head coach
Dejon Bivens) gave me. I'm happy to bring this big win to the team. Let's push for more."
The Aggies will try to push for more against UNC Greensboro on Thursday when they play the Spartans at 2 p.m. at the UNCG Tennis Courts.
