DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University men's tennis team lost a close match 4-3 on Saturday afternoon against South Carolina State University at the Dr. James W. Younge Tennis Courts. Juniors Oliver Saarinen and Hugo Hidalgo Vega and sophomore Naresh Bharathy were victorious in their singles matches helping the Eagles collect three points.
With only two matches remaining for NCCU, the Eagles were looking to defeat SCSU as they came into Durham undefeated in conference play. Both teams played their final regular season Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference matches against each other before wrapping up their non-conference schedules.
SCSU (11-7, 5-0 MEAC) secured two doubles victories for the first point of the match. Sophomore Kareem Abdul Hakim and Saarinen were the only Eagle duo to win their doubles match. The pair defeated Aissa Benchakroun and Benjamin Niv 6-4 in No.1 Doubles.
The Bulldogs gained a 2-0 advantage over NC Central after Abdul Hakim dropped his No.2 Singles match. Hidalgo Vega battled for the first Eagles' point winning No.1 Singles in a pair of 6-3 sets over Novak Novakovic. Saturday's singles win marks the 11th straight victory for Hidalgo Vega increasing his singles record to 14-3 and 5-0 in conference.
South Carolina State extended its lead to 4-1 clinching the match over the Eagles after senior Shaka Cristellotti and freshman Lucas Artigas fell in No.5 and 6 Singles, respectively.
Saarinen and Bharathy collected the final two points of the match for NCCU. Saarinen was pushed to three sets after dropping the second but winning the first and third in a pair of 6-4 sets against Gabriel Johnson. Bharathy was down 4-6 early to SCSU's Benchakroun and came back to win the final two sets including a 7-2 tiebreaker victory in the second set.
NC Central (6-14, 3-2 MEAC) concludes the regular season on Friday, April 19 facing Shaw University for Senior Day at 1 p.m.
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