CARY, N.C. – Valentina de Aquino and Carlota Rodriguez Sanchez secured a trip to the ITA Conference Masters after winning the MEAC Fall Invitational women's doubles title Sunday afternoon at Cary Tennis Park. The duo battled back for consecutive victories in the semifinal and championship match, using 10-point tiebreakers to clinch both matches.

Rodriguez Sanchez and de Aquino battled through three days of competition in the lower half of the bracket, ultimately reaching the championship match against top-seeded South Carolina State's Pimmada Thongkum and Katerina Marsalkova. The Eagles opened play Friday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Howard's Lauren Oliver and Franchesca Brown. NCCU posted the same score in Saturday's quarterfinal against Morgan State's Tyler Williams and Michaela Stephens.

The Maroon & Gray duo faced two-seeded Norfolk State's Julia Daroszewska and Yuliya Yurkova in Saturday's semifinal. After dropping the opening set, 6-1, de Aquino and Rodriguez Sanchez regrouped and took a 4-1 lead in the second set before closing it out, 7-5. The Eagles then opened the 10-point tiebreaker with six consecutive points and went on to win, 10-3, advancing to the championship match.

The championship match followed a similar script as de Aquino and Rodriguez Sanchez again found themselves trailing after the opening set. NCCU kept the second set close, forcing a tiebreaker after the set was tied at 6-6. After falling behind 5-2 in the tiebreaker, the Eagles rallied to win five straight points and take the set, sending the match to another 10-point tiebreaker.

It was all Eagles from there as de Aquino and Rodriguez Sanchez jumped out to a 7-1 advantage before closing out another 10-3 victory to claim the women's doubles title.

Rodriguez Sanchez and de Aquino become the second pair of Eagles to earn a berth in the ITA Conference Masters, joining Sara Barbaric and Valeria San Miguel Soria, who advanced to the event last season.

In other action, all Eagles advanced to at least the quarterfinals of competition. Randy Rakotoarilala and Barbaric reached the singles quarterfinals, while three different NCCU pairings advanced to the doubles quarterfinals. Journee Henderson and Rakotoarilala faced teammates Mariana Zottoli and Barbaric in the doubles quarterfinals, with the latter duo advancing to the semifinals.

NC Central will return to action Oct. 23-24 at the CNU Invitational, hosted by Christopher Newport in Newport News, Va.

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