Match Results

NORFOLK, Va. – After dropping the doubles point, Longwood came back to win four of five singles matches for a 4-2 victory over the Norfolk State men's tennis team on Saturday afternoon at Virginia Wesleyan's Everett Tennis Center.
 
The loss dropped NSU to 7-13 overall this season. Unofficially, the setback also marked the last match of the season for the Spartans. By virtue of Bethune-Cookman's win over Florida A&M on Saturday, NSU has unofficially been eliminated from the MEAC tournament that begins on Thursday.
 
On Saturday, the Spartans got off to a strong start, winning at No. 2 and 3 doubles for the early 1-0 lead in the match. At the second spot, seniors Pascal Domnik and Daniel Grauel defeated Florian Uffer and Alfonso Castellano by a 7-5 score in the tiebreaker for an 8-7 win in the match.
 
And at the third place in the lineup, seniors Igor Braga and Shaheed Mourillon-Swift downed Bharani Sankar and Rosen Ilchev, 8-6. Longwood did come away with a win at No. 1 doubles, with Dan Elston and Steed Johnson posting an 8-6 victory over freshmen Antonio Pejic and Fatehdeep Singh.
 
Singh also won in singles at the fifth slot, earning a 6-3, 7-6 win over Sankar. Domnik also led at No. 1 singles over Elston before the match was called. Domnik won the first set by a 7-5 score and trailed in the second, 4-3, when the match ended after Longwood clinched the victory.
 
The Lancers won the other four singles contests to improve to 6-15 on the season, with two of those matches going to three sets. At No. 2 singles, Pejic won the first set over Castellano, 6-4, before his Longwood opponent came back to win the second, 7-6. Castellano led the third set by a 1-0 score before Pejic retired from the match.
 
Another Spartan player also won the first set of his match, as Braga came away with a 6-3 win over Johnson at the No. 3 position. But Johnson won the second set, 6-1, and took the third set by a 7-6 score after winning the tiebreaker, 7-3.
 
Uffer posted a 6-3, 6-2 win over Grauel at the No. 4 slot, while Ilchev picked up a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Mourillon-Swift at the sixth spot to help the Lancers come away with the win.
 
Should NSU fail to qualify for the MEAC tournament, Saturday's match would mark the close of the careers of five Spartan players.
 
Grauel and Braga were the only four-year senior players for NSU. Braga was the MEAC Rookie of the Year in 2012, while Grauel earned second-team All-MEAC honors last year and was a four-time MEAC Player of the Week. Grauel finished with a 45-34 overall singles record, including 10-5 in conference play. He also went 29-27 in doubles, including 7-4 in the MEAC.
 
Braga, meanwhile, ended his NSU career with a 35-46 overall singles record and a 7-9 MEAC mark. He also posted a 37-35 doubles record in dual play with a 6-8 conference mark. Both players were also MEAC All-Academic Team and ITA Scholar-Athlete Team honorees during their careers.
 
Domnik finished 15-7 in singles and 6-10 in doubles after beginning his Spartan career late in the 2014 season. He earned a spot on the MEAC All-Tournament team last year after helping NSU finish as the runner-up at the MEAC Championship before playing the No. 1 spot for the Spartans this year.
 
Mourillon-Swift won 11 doubles matches and five singles contests during his time at NSU, competing mostly during his freshman season in 2012 and this year as a senior. He also competed sparingly in 2013 as a sophomore before stepping away from tennis last year.
 
NSU's fifth senior is Alex Killam, a four-year letterwinner on the football team who joined the tennis squad this year when the Spartans began the season short-handed. He earned his only career victories in both singles and doubles against UMES in late March.