DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University men's tennis team will start its spring tennis season by making the short drive to Chapel Hill to battle 18th ranked University of North Carolina. The action at UNC's Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

This will be the sixth time NCCU has faced a ranked Tar Heels squad and the second time they have opened the season in Chapel Hill (1/18/20). Since the 2010-11 season, the Eagles have played against 14 nationally ranked teams, including three last season (#10 Wake, #23 UNC, #22 NC State).

NCCU was active in the fall, competing in four events. First, the squad traveled to South Fulton, Georgia, to compete in the HBCU National Tennis Championships, where multiple Eagles had strong showings.

Senior Sebastian Pino advanced to the semifinals of the men's A flight following a 6-3, 6-3 win in the quarterfinals, but was defeated by eventual flight champion, Jonasz Dziopak from Tennessee State.

Sophomore Oliver Saarinen was defeated in the championship of the men's A flight consolation bracket, 8-6, by Jacobi Bain from Xavier University (LA). Freshman Facundo Olmedo reached the semifinals of the men's B flight consolation bracket, but fell, 8-2, to the winner consolation bracket. Both LaQuon Gilchrist and Neiman Sneed advanced to the semifinals of the men's C flight consolation bracket.

The maroon and gray played at the Elon Invitational on Sept. 23-25, at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center, where a few young Eagles showed their potential.
Freshmen Naresh Bharathy won the consolation bracket of the Powell singles flight 6-2, 6-0 over Ibraham Abbas of Norfolk State, and his classmate Neiman Sneed was a finalist in the White singles consolation flight.  Sneed advanced to the final round after a dramatic 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 win over Vselovod Rusin of Longwood, but fell 6-4, 6-4 to Jay Montague of UNC Greensboro in the final round.

Additionally, the freshmen duo then teamed up to finish second in the White doubles flight, after a narrow 7-5 defeat to Emiliano Jorquera and Donte Armbrister of Hampton. 

The third event of the fall was the Spartan Fall Invitational hosted by UNC Greensboro. Pino had a strong performance by winning two singles matches against David Flisberg of UNCG and Esteban Penagos of Elon.

Olmedo and Saarinen also won singles matches. Olmedo took down Cahill of Coastal Carolina 6-3, 7-6, while Saarinen scored a valiant three-set win over Ben Zipay from Elon, 2-6, 7-6, 8-6.

The duo of Gilchrist and Olmedo picked up their first doubles victory, 6-4 over Rivers Cahill and Neil O'Connor of CCU. They later earned another victory, defeating Andrew Black and Harrison Gwynn from UNCG, 7-6 (7-4).

The final fall event was the ITA Carolina Regional, where the Eagles faced some tough competition. Saarinen earned two singles victories and one doubles win in the event.

He fell in his first match against Connor Krug of Duke on Friday, 6-2, 6-4, and then defeated Jordy Lake of College of Charleston, 6-2, 6-4, in the round of 64 in the consolation bracket before picking up a win over Win Steveker of Queens University of Charlotte, 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the round of 16. Saarinen teamed up with Pino and the duo won their first match against Eduardo Dias and Chrisjan Van Wyk from Gardner-Webb in a third-set tiebreak, 3-6, 6-4, 10-8, and rallied from trailing 8-5 in the tiebreak to win five consecutive points to win the match. They were defeated in the round of 32 by a UNC pair (7-6, 7-5, 6-3).

After taking on the Tar Heels, the Eagles will face another ACC foe, the Duke Blue Devils on Sunday, Jan. 22 at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center in Durham at 6:00 p.m.