NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State men's tennis team successfully defended its turf with a 5-2 win over Navy in its home opener on Friday at the NSU Tennis Complex.
 
The Spartans (5-2) swept doubles play to take an early 1-0 lead. Flavian Fernandez and Agustin Carrizo defeated Aries Wong and Jacob Witt, 6-1, in the No. 3-seeded doubles flight to kick off the match.
 
Andres Alcaraz and Dan Dumitrascu followed suit in the top-seeded flight, prevailing over Peter Lohrbach and Greg Durham, 6-3. Vini Da Silva and Ignacio Guevel completed the sweep with a 6-4 victory over Andrew Hicks and Walker Sims at No. 2 doubles.
 
NSU took three of the first four singles flights to seal the win. At sixth-seeded singles, Guevel defeated Witt in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. Dumitrascu also won in straight sets, defeating Hicks, 6-2, 6-3, in the No. 4-seeded flight.
 
Durham put the Midshipmen (16-8) on the board with a 7-5, 7-6 victory against Carrizo in the fifth-seeded match, but Fernandez slammed the door shut with a three-set win over Lohrbach in the No. 3-seeded flight. Fernandez bookended a 6-3 loss in the second set with a 6-1 win in the opener and a 6-3 victory in the decisive third set.
 
Alcaraz kept NSU rolling with a come-from-behind win at No. 2 singles. The sophomore dropped the first set, 6-4, before storming back with decisive wins in the next two sets, 6-1 and 6-2.
 
Wong scored another point for Navy in the final match of the afternoon. He and Da Silva split the first two sets, 7-6, 4-6, before Wong won 1-0 (10-7) in a super tiebreaker set.
 
The Spartans return to action on Wednesday, when they host UC Riverside at 3 p.m.