CARY, N.C. – Freshman
Oliver Saarinen picked up the only singles win that the North Carolina Central University men's tennis team needed in order to advance past Coppin State University in the quarterfinals of the 2022 MEAC Tennis Championships hosted by NCCU at the Cary Tennis Park on Thursday.
NCCU is the fourth seed and will next play regular season champions, defending tournament champions and top-seed South Carolina State University in the MEAC semifinals on Friday at noon. The victorious Eagles are dancing into the semis for the second time in the last three MEAC postseasons.
No. 5 seed Coppin State ended its season at 1-13 with sophomore Vansh Kapoor picking up CSU's lone point with a No. 3 singles victory.
Saarinen started the match with a 6-1 doubles victory in which he partnered with redshirt junior
Sebastian Pino. That triumph secured the first team point in favor of the maroon and gray. Saarinen and Pino moved over .500 on the season together at 9-8.
With CSU only having four active players, NCCU then only needed one singles win to keep its season alive.
With NCCU's top two All-MEAC selections in seniors
Miles Clark and
Sebastian Pino also winning their matches, Saarinen was the first to prevail on court four. Saarinen's sixth singles win of his rookie season was by matching 6-2 set scores over junior Dean Waterman.
