VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Norfolk State men's tennis team closed the fall 2016 portion of its official schedule at the Virginia Beach Clay Court Championships at the Cape Henry Racquet Club this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
"The tennis team did an outstanding job representing Norfolk State this weekend, and I was very pleased with their efforts and energy," Norfolk State head coach
Darryl Cummings said.
Freshmen
Andres Alcaraz and
Vini Da Silva started the season with strong showings. They each made it to the quarterfinal of the men's draw in singles action beginning on Saturday. Alcaraz was defeated by eventual runner-up Marten Jonnson of VCU, 6-2, 6-3. Da Silva fell by the same exact score to Jonnson's VCU teammate Philip Mobius.
"Da Silva and Alcaraz showed some inspired play by reaching the quarterfinals of the men's draw," Cummings said.
Earlier on Saturday, Da Silva defeated Fernando Fernandes of Hampton, 6-1, 6-4, and David Reed of Christopher Newport, 6-4, 6-0, before falling to Mobius. Alcaraz stormed back after dropping the first set against Christopher Newport's Justin Cerny, 6-4. He won the second set, 6-0, and the third-set tiebreaker, 10-4, to advance to face Hampton's Luke Thompson. He sailed to a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Thompson before falling to Jonnson.
Also on Saturday in other singles matches, sophomore
Flavian Fernandez failed to get out of the first round when he dropped his match to Thompson, 6-1, 4-6, 10-5. Fernandez rebounded to defeat Christopher Newport's William Trang, 6-3, 7-6, in a consolation match. Sophomore
Dan Dumitrascu received a bye in the first round before falling 6-4, 7-6, 10-1 to Juan Araoz of Hampton.
In doubles action on Friday, Norfolk State defeated Hampton in 4-of-5 matches. Alcaraz and Da Silva defeated the team of Charles Hudson and Basil Post and the duo of Matthew Foster-Estwick and Peter Odegbami by matching 7-5 scores. They also cruised to a 6-2 victory over Araoz and Thompson.
Dumitrascu and Fernandez split their two doubles decisions. They defeated Fernandes and former Hampton player Joshua McQueen, 6-1, before losing to Foster-Estwick and Odegbami, 6-3.
Da Silva teamed up with Norfolk State women's player Liza Gordeeva in mixed doubles to defeat Hampton teammates Hudson and Cherise Slocombe, 6-3. Fernandez and women's teammate Dajana Cvjetkovic also earned a 6-4 mixed doubles victory over Hampton's Mariam Mitaishvili and Fedor Shirin.
Norfolk State dropped its other two mixed doubles matches against the Pirates. Araoz and Kristina Titova defeated Dumitrascu and Paula Fortuno, 6-2, while Alcaraz and Ana Popovic fell to McQueen and Mikaela Pierce, 7-6.
The Virginia Beach Clay Court Championships featured players from Hampton, Norfolk State and Virginia Commonwealth along with former and future college players. Over a dozen different countries were represented.
