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.
 
The Spartans did the most damage on the opening day of competition, going 6-1 in singles matches and 1-1 in doubles.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.