DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University women’s tennis team has a chance to make history on Monday, April 8 when the Lady Eagles host rival North Carolina A&T State University and Meredith College starting at 2 p.m. at the NCCU tennis courts behind McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium.
The doubleheader will also be significant as the final home matches for NCCU senior Olesya Palko, the No. 1 singles player for the Lady Eagles. A native of Kyiv, Ukraine, Palko will be graduating in May as a major in biology/pre-med with a minor in chemistry. She has maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average during her academic career at NCCU, while posting a career singles record of 49-29 and a doubles record of 46-28.
On Monday, Palko will try to lead the Lady Eagles to a standard no NCCU women’s tennis team has reached in 16 prior seasons – 12 wins.
NCCU enters Monday’s action with an overall record of 10-7 and ranks second in the MEAC Southern Division with a 4-1 conference mark. NCCU has posted a program-best 11 wins in three previous seasons, first in 2003, then in 2010 and last in 2011.
The Lady Eagles have not enjoyed a winning record since going 10-8 in 2006. With two more regular-season matches after Monday followed by the MEAC Championships on April 19-21, a doubleheader sweep of A&T and Meredith would clinch the team’s first winning season in seven years.
Although the team has dropped its last three matches, the Lady Eagles got off to the best start in program history by winning 10 of their first 14 matches, including first-time victories over Campbell and Longwood.
David Nass, who has served as the Lady Eagles head coach since the program started as a club sport in 1997, is surprised by the team’s success. “We have a young squad with three freshmen, three sophomores and one senior,” Nass said. “So it comes as a surprise, but it’s a good surprise.
“It shows that the new players really don’t have a sense of what has taken place in the past when it has been a struggle to play some of these schools. The newcomers are taking it like, ‘Hey, this is my opportunity to beat somebody,' and they are doing it. So as a coach I am loving that.”
(NCCU media practicum student Bianca Cammack contributed to this story)
