B-CU Match Results | S.C. State Match Results
SUMTER, S.C. – The Norfolk State men's tennis team was unsuccessful in its bid for a win on the first day of the MEAC Round-Up, dropping decisions to Bethune-Cookman, 5-2, and South Carolina State, 6-1, on Thursday.
Despite the losses, junior Arsenio Culver picked up a pair of wins at No. 1 singles. He defeated B-CU's Marc Misanovic, 7-5, 6-2, and was ahead against Gabriel Meana, 4-1, when the S.C. State player withdrew in the middle of the first set.
Culver and junior Ben Marks also defeated Bethune-Cookman's Misanovic and Jeffrey Smallwood in the No. 1 doubles match, 8-2. Freshman Kent Austin picked up the other win against the Wildcats, defeating Smallwood, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 4 singles.
NSU could not get the early lead against Bethune-Cookman, dropping the other two doubles matches as the Wildcats grabbed an early 1-0 lead. Austin and junior Christian Romanzini lost to Vitor Belucci and Santiago Lobelo, 8-2, at the third doubles position. Junior Jonathan Sessom and freshman Brian Bullock almost got the win at No. 2 doubles, but the duo ultimately fell to Kristofer Martin and Emil Vassiley, 9-7.
In the singles bouts, Marks and Bullock pushed their respective matches into three sets. At the No. 2 slot, Marks won the first set over Vassiley, 6-1, before Vassiley rebounded to win the next two sets, 6-4, 6-4. Bullock also won his first set at No. 6 singles, 7-6 (3), but Belucci earned a 6-3 second-set win and then won the third-set tiebreaker, 10-3.
Romanzini came up on the short end of a 6-0, 6-4 decision to Lobelo at No. 3 singles, while Sessom dropped a pair of sets, 6-2, 6-2, to Martin at the No. 5 spot.
Against South Carolina State, winners of six of the last seven MEAC Championships, Culver was the only player to earn a win. He and Marks fell at No. 1 doubles to Meana and Peteris Vinogradous, 8-5, while Dmytro Kovalevych and Anton Protsenko defeated Sessom and Bullock, 8-1, at No. 2. Austin and Romanzini dropped an 8-4 result to Artemiv Nikitin and David Grund at the No. 3 spot.
In singles action, Marks pushed Kovalevych to the edge in the first set at No. 2, but Kovalevych earned a 7-5 victory to start the match and then cruised to a 6-1 win in the second set. Romanzini and Austin lost at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, with Romanzini dropping a 6-2, 6-3 decision to Protsenko and Austin losing in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1, to Nikitin.
In the last two singles matches, Grund defeated Sessom, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 5, while Bullock fell to Langer, 6-2, 6-0, at No. 6.
NSU will be back in action Saturday when the Spartans take on Florida A&M and UMES.
