Match Results | Tournament Bracket

RALEIGH, N.C. – After falling behind in doubles, the Norfolk State men's tennis team took care of business in singles play for a 4-2 victory over Morgan State Friday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the MEAC Championship at the Millbrook Tennis Center.

NSU, the No. 4 seed in the Southern Division, defeated the No. 1 seed from the Northern Division for the second year in a row at the MEAC tournament. The victory improved NSU's record to 13-13 overall on the season, the most wins by an NSU squad in five years. Morgan State saw its record fall to 6-10 overall after winning all four Northern Division matches during the year.

The Spartans advanced to play Southern Division No. 2 seed Florida A&M Saturday at noon at the Millbrook Tennis Center. All four Southern Division men's teams won on Friday in the quarterfinal round over their Northern Division counterparts.

Early in the match, Morgan State earned the first victory of the day when Aaron Benjamin and Jannick Tash defeated the NSU duo of freshmen Daniel Grauel and Shaheed Mourillon-Swift, 8-4, at the No. 3 doubles position. A short time later, seniors Arsenio Culver and Ben Marks finished up an 8-6 win over Duk Young-Park and Eric Ward at the No. 1 slot to give each team a doubles win.

The Bears, though, earned the doubles point and took an early 1-0 lead in the match when Djorde Ljubinkovic and Duwane Thomas downed Spartan freshman Igor Braga and sophomore Kent Austin, 8-6, at the No. 2 slot.

Grauel helped get that point back when he completed the first singles match of the afternoon, a 6-4, 6-0 win over Ljubinkovic at the No. 5 spot. The Bears, though, went up by a 2-1 margin in the match after Thomas handled senior Christian Romanzini by a 6-4, 6-2 score at the No. 4 slot.

From there, NSU stormed ahead for the victory. Braga was the next to finish, as he pulled out a 6-3, 6-4 win over Tash at the No. 3 position. Senior Roosevelt Cooper gave the Spartans a 3-2 lead when he defeated Benjamin at the sixth position. Cooper won the first set convincingly, 6-1, but fell in the second set by that exact 6-1 score. Cooper, though, rallied for a 6-4 victory in the third set for the match win.

Marks then gave NSU the team win when he completed his comeback over Ward at the No. 2 slot. Ward jumped ahead first with a 6-3 win in the first set, but Marks rallied for a 6-4 win in the second set and a 7-2 win in the third-set tiebreaker for the 7-6 third-set win.

At the top of the lineup, Culver fell in the first set to Young-Park, 7-5, but recovered to win the second set, 6-4. The All-MEAC first team performer was leading the third set 4-2 over Young-Park when play was halted due to NSU's match win.

Florida A&M defeated NSU back in early March, 6-1, at the Centre Court Racquet Club in Newport News, Va. The top seed in the South, South Carolina State, will match up with No. 3 seed Bethune-Cookman in the other semifinal match.