Match Results
NORFOLK, Va. – South Carolina State won the doubles point thanks in part to Norfolk State's short-handed lineup, and the Bulldogs advanced in the MEAC Tournament with a 4-0 win over the Spartan men's tennis team on Thursday afternoon at ODU's Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.
S.C. State only needed to win one of two contested doubles matches, and the Bulldogs did so with a win at the No. 1 spot. They then won the first set in four of the five contested singles matchups to eventually go on to the win.
NSU, the No. 2 seed from the North, saw its season come to a close at 6-16 overall. S.C. State, the South's No. 3 seed, improved to 10-8 and advanced to Friday's semifinal round at noon.
The Spartans entered the match in a hole thanks to having just five players this year. They defaulted at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles, and quickly fell into a 2-0 hole after first dropping the doubles point. Martin Figura and Jakub Vitek won at the top doubles spot, 6-3 over freshman
Benedikt Henning and
Flavian Fernandez.
Sophomores
Antonio Pejic and
Fatehdeep Singh trailed 4-3 to Vladyslav Yanchenko and Salih Gilmutdinov at the second doubles position when the match was abandoned.
Aleksander Stupar gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead after he completed a 6-0, 6-1 win over Singh at the fifth singles slot. Vitek finished off the win when he topped Pejic by a 6-1, 6-3 margin at the third position.
Henning was the lone Spartan to win his first set, topping Figura, 6-4, at No. 1 singles. Figura led 3-1 when the overall match ended.
In the other two matches, Yanchenko defeated NSU freshman
Dan Dumitrascu in the first set, 6-2, and was tied at 1-1 in the second. Stanislav Baco won the first set over Fernandez at No. 4 singles, 6-1, and was tied at 2-2 in the second when the day ended.
The Spartans, who competed in the North this season after previously playing in the South, did not have a player on the team this year with junior or senior eligibility and will add an undetermined number of newcomers for next season.
