LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Norfolk State men's tennis team played exceptional tennis at the ITA DI Men's Atlantic Regional Championships this week at Liberty University, picking up wins against strong competition.
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The Spartans did the most damage on the opening day of competition, going 6-1 in singles matches and 1-1 in doubles.
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Deniz Okyay took down a pair of Bison to get things started, cruising past Howard's Daniel Dunac 6-1, 6-1 before upsetting No. 6 seed Brendan McDonald from Bucknell 7-5, 6-4. Dunac played the No. 3 position for Howard last year, while McDonald earned a team-high 20 singles victories at the No. 6 slot for Bucknell.
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Frederick McRae went 2-0 on Wednesday in the Bronze draw as well. He defeated Temple freshman Aayush Bhat 6-4, 6-1 in the morning, before defeating Georgetown's Akira Morgenstern 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7) in a three-set thriller.
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Jakub Solarski kept the momentum going for the Spartans in the afternoon, defeating St. Joseph's sophomore John Butler 6-3, 6-0, before earning a straight-sets victory over Richmond's Dylan Atkinson, a four-star recruit ranked in the top 110 of the 2023 class.
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Solarski and Okyay weren't finished yet, though. The pair combined for an 8-6 doubles victory that evening over Bucknell's Tim Zelikovsky and Liam Kilmer in the main draw.
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Solarski kept his singles run going on Thursday, taking down Penn State freshman Jack Martuccio 6-2, 6-3 to earn a spot in the silver draw. Martuccio is ranked by Tennis Recruiting as the No. 76 overall prospect in the 2023 class.
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The NSU freshman's run finally came to a close on Thursday afternoon, dropping a tight match 6-4, 7-5 against No. 6 seed Manuel Goncalves. Goncalves played the No. 3 spot in Virginia Tech's lineup last year.
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Okyay nearly moved into the silver draw with his teammate, dropping a valiant three-set match to Temple sophomore Erden Er 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. McRae's run also came to an end on Thursday, falling 6-0, 6-3 to No. 1 seed Javier Ruiz of Utah State. Â