DURHAM, N.C. (www.NCCUEaglePride.com) – The weather forecast for Sunday (Jan. 23) evening calls for partly cloudy skies and 36 degrees, not exactly tennis conditions. However, the climate inside the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center on the campus of Duke University will be just fine when the North Carolina Central University men’s tennis team opens its spring season against the nationally-ranked Blue Devils.
The No. 14 Duke squad hosts its neighboring Eagles at 6 p.m. in the second contest of a Sunday doubleheader. The Blue Devils, entering the event with a 1-0 record after defeating Hawaii earlier this month, will play Elon at 12 noon.
Duke has won all of the five previous meetings with the Eagles, including 7-0 shutouts in each of the past two seasons (Feb. 7, 2010 and March 4, 2009). The two Durham institutions have also met on the courts in 1972, 1975 and 1990.
Although the series favors the Blue Devils and NCCU remains an underdog against the No. 14 Blue Devils, long-time Eagles head coach D. Curtis Lawson sees many benefits to the match-up.
“It serves as a litmus test,” Lawson said. “It allows us an opportunity to see how we fair against some of the best talent in the nation. It is also good for ranking purposes. If we have good individual results, then they would have an opportunity to get individual rankings in the ITA, which helps with getting a team ranking as well.
“An added benefit with playing Duke is sustaining what has been a long-standing relationship between NCCU and Duke,” Lawson added. “It serves to strengthen the relationships between the two universities and the two tennis programs.”
The Eagles line-up will consist of junior Jack Waissen (Basingstoke, England), junior Alejandro Espitia (Bogota, Colombia), senior Trey Chatman (High Point, N.C.), freshman Andres Perez (Bogota, Colombia), junior Johnny Brown, Jr. (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and sophomore Christopher Mack (Brooklyn, N.Y.).
“The early signs are showing a willingness to be resilient,” said Lawson in accessing his team. “We don’t have a lot of depth, so we are going to have to call on solid performances in pretty much every match from our returners (Waissen, Espitia, Chatman). I also have high expectations from our newest recruit, Andres Perez, and I am pushing our two walk-ons (Mack, Brown) to exceed their potential.”
After the Duke match, the Eagles return to competition on Feb. 13 against Howard University at 10 a.m. on the campus of NCCU.
