NORFOLK, Va. — Junior All-MEAC honoree Gabriel Cucalon won in both singles and doubles for North Carolina Central University, but Morgan State University won the bottom four singles matches to rally for a 4-2 win in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Men's Tennis Championships Thursday afternoon at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.
 
The Bears, who are the top seed from the Northern Division, advance to the semifinals and will play the winner of the Florida A&M University vs. Hampton University match on Friday at Noon. Morgan State improved to 13-4 with the win.
 
Cucalon won his ninth straight match. He disposed of senior Lucas Krusinski in straight sets. The 6-3, 6-4 win in the second position in the lineup provided the fourth-seeded (South) Eagles with their lone singles point. Cucalon, who is a two-time All-MEAC performer, finished his third season with a 12-6 singles record for the Maroon and Gray.
 
The Guayaquil, Ecuador, product started his day with a 6-4 doubles win with junior classmate Sebastian Bromley. Cucalon and Bromley recorded a 9-7 doubles record on the season as the Eagles middle tandem.
 
Sophomores Theofanis Kontopoulos and Maksym Konovalov matched Cucalon and Bromley with a 6-4 doubles win at No. 1 doubles to supply NCCU with the early 1-nil advantage over the Bears.
 
However, straight-set wins by freshman No. 3 Shrey Gupta, freshman No. 4 Sebastian Lopez, freshman No. 5 Oguzhan Ceylan and sophomore No. 6 Nihit Rawal provided Morgan State with the comeback triumph.
 
The top-flight battle between Kontopoulos and junior Arjun Ramakrishnan was in a tight third set when play was stopped after MSU had locked up the team victory. The showdown was a battle between the MEAC Player of the Year (Kontopoulos) and a fellow All-MEAC honoree (Ramakrishnan).
 
NCCU finished its season at 4-14 overall.