NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State men's tennis dropped a non-conference home match to James Madison, falling 4-2 on Friday afternoon.
 
The Dukes (13-6) jumped ahead to an early 1-0 lead after winning the first two doubles matches. On the first court, Pierre Kohler and Alvaro Arce downed Flavian Fernandez and Agustin Carrizo, 6-3, before a 7-5 victory by Paul Mendoza and Gonzalo Adis over Vini Da Silva and Ignacio Guevel on the second court.
 
NSU's Andres Alcaraz and Dan Dumitrascu led Tate Steinour and Josh Raymundo, 6-5, in the unfinished doubles flight on court three.
 
Mendoza doubled JMU's advantage with a straight-sets win over Alcaraz – 6-2, 6-1 – in the second-seeded singles match. Damon Roberts then put the Dukes ahead 3-0 with a 6-1, 6-4 victory against Dumitrascu on the fifth court.
 
Back-to-back wins by Da Silva and Fernandez kept the door open for the Spartans (3-6).
 
Da Silva pushed his winning streak to three matches with a 6-4, 6-4 result against Kolher on the first court. Fernandez then made the team score 3-2 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Adis.
 
The final two matches went to third sets as both teams battled to the finish line.
 
JMU earned the clinching point on the third court, where Arce rallied from a 6-4 defeat in the first set to down Carrizo 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. Guevel's flight with Steinour went unfinished with Guevel trailing 4-3 in the third set after dropping the first set, 7-5, and rallying, 6-3, in the second.
 
The Spartans conclude a stretch of three matches in three days with their conference opener against Howard tomorrow at 1 p.m.