DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University men's tennis program will open up the dual match portion of its schedule this weekend with a pair of matches at East Carolina University as the Eagles look towards having a successful spring season.
 
NCCU posted a 4-13 record last season, including a 0-4 mark in the Southern Division of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). However, the Eagles look to be more competitive with a much deeper squad of eight players this season.
 
Captain Dillon Strepay (Cary, N.C.) will be the only senior on a very young roster that has no juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen. Strepay walked onto the team last year and played in all 17 matches.
 
Veteran head coach D. Curtis Lawson and assistant coach John McLean IV will be coaching two other letter winners and five newcomers.
 
The sophomore duo of Gabriel Cucalon (Guayaquil, Ecuador) and Davide Callegari (Padova, Italy) had the most success for the maroon and gray last season. Cucalon posted a winning record of 10-7 and Callegari followed closely behind with an 8-9 ledger. They also won five doubles matches partnered together.
 
Cucalon had a big fall season for the Eagles, winning a pair of individual championships. He started off his second season by capturing the UNCW Southern Exposure Sunrooms Seahawk Fall Invitational B Single Flight before picking up his biggest title yet in securing the Singles A Flight at the 2016 HBCU National Tennis Championships.
 
A trio of newcomers got their first experience representing the Eagles in the fall in sophomore transfer Sebastian Bromley (Louisville, Ky.) and freshmen Maksym Konovalov (Kiev, Ukraine) and Brooks Campbell (Clayton, N.C.). Two other rookies just recently joined the squad to start the New Year in Theofanis Kontopoulos (Corinthos, Greece) and Pablo Juez Torres (Barcelona, Spain).
 
NCCU missed the MEAC Tournament last season, but is picked to finish fourth out of five teams in the MEAC Southern Division, which would return the Eagles to postseason play. NCCU did advance to the semifinals of the MEAC Tournament the year prior in 2015.
 
Lawson and McLean have constructed a 21-match schedule that features 11 home tilts. The Eagles will battle four other MEAC Southern Division rivals in North Carolina A&T, Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman and defending league champion South Carolina State. NCCU will also play three other MEAC northern division foes in Morgan State, Howard and Coppin State. The Eagles slate includes matches against in-state foes Duke, East Carolina, Appalachian State, UNC Asheville, Davidson and Campbell while their longest road trips include a spring break trip to the coastline of South Carolina against Coastal Carolina and Charleston and a northern trip to the Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. areas.  
 
NCCU hits the court first in Greenville, North Carolina, against host East Carolina University on Friday, Jan. 20 at 2:30 p.m. and Presbyterian College on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. For full schedule details, fans are encouraged to visit NCCUEagle.Pride.com.