NORFOLK, Va. – A pair of freshmen came away with victories on Saturday afternoon for the Norfolk State men's tennis team in its 5-2 loss to Temple at the NSU Tennis Complex.
 
Playing their first home match of the season, the Spartans picked up a win in doubles along with victories at the No. 3 and 5 positions in singles. NSU fell to 1-2 on the season, while Temple improved to 3-0.
 
Freshman Santiago Rendon gave NSU one of its two points on the day, defeating Amine Zraidi at the third slot, 6-2, 6-0. Santiago's classmate Ivan Ivars earned a win at the No. 5 position over Eric Biscoveanu as well. Ivars won the first set, 7-6, including a 9-7 tiebreaker win. He then had a much easier time in the second set, 6-0.
 
NSU's win in doubles came at the No. 1 position, where senior Ignacio Guevel and junior Federico Rebecchini were victorious by a 7-6 margin, 8-6 in the tiebreaker, over Biscoveanu and Louis Gorregues.
 
In the other doubles matches, Rendon and senior Andres Alcaraz fell 6-4 at the No. 2 slot to the Temple duo of Juan Araoz and Marin Delmas. Ivars and sophomore Ibrahim Abbas suffered a 6-1 loss to Zraidi and Michael Haelen at No. 3 doubles.
 
Alcaraz nearly came away with a win over Gorregues at the No. 2 singles position, falling in the first set 6-3 before coming back to win 6-4 in the second. Gorregues then won 10-6 in the third-set tiebreaker.
 
The other singles matches went Temple's way as well. Delmas topped Rebecchini at the top spot in the lineup, 6-2, 6-0, and Guevel came up short against Leo Raquin, 6-1, 6-1, at the No. 4 position. Haelen defeated Abbas at No. 6 singles, 6-3, 6-0.
 
The Spartans will play at Richmond tomorrow at 1 p.m.