NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State men's tennis team sends seven players to the 25th Annual ITA HBCU National Tennis Championships, set for Sept. 17-20 at the South Fulton Tennis Center. Four Spartans are seeded in singles, and two of NSU's three doubles teams are seeded in Flight A.
Doubles opens the tournament Thursday morning, and all three Spartan teams are in the Flight A draw. Sophomores Marcin Andrzejczak and Szymon Malecki are the No. 2 seed. Sophomores Patryk Kowal and Szymon Janzen are seeded third. Sophomores Marcin Dójczynski and Kasper Kulpa are also in the field.
All three teams have first-round byes and play Round of 16 matches at 10 a.m. Andrzejczak and Malecki face Vicent Llobell Buigues and Joseph Puig McCallan. Kowal and Janzen meet Hlib Kovalenko and Emre Atlamis. Dójczynski and Kulpa take on Christian Sanchez and VanDer Woody. Andrzejczak/Malecki and Dójczynski/Kulpa share the bottom half of the bracket and could meet in the semifinals. Kowal/Janzen are in the top half, so an all-Spartan final is possible.
In Flight A singles, Andrzejczak (Lodz, Poland) is the No. 1 seed and Malecki (Opalenica, Poland) is seeded second. The two are on opposite halves of the 32-player bracket and could meet in the final.
Andrzejczak and Malecki both have first-round singles byes. Andrzejczak's Round of 16 opponent will be the winner of Hung-Yu Chen and Sebastian Griffiths. Malecki will face the winner of Ching Chang Chiu and Raphael Ankrah.
Two more Spartans open Flight A singles play at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Dójczynski (Lodz, Poland) takes on Kovalenko, and the winner advances to face No. 6 seed Sergio Lopez Guillen. Kulpa (Lubin, Poland) meets Martin Catrice for a spot against No. 3 seed Fatih Sisic.
Norfolk State has two seeds in Flight B singles. Janzen (Warsaw, Poland) is the No. 2 seed and awaits the winner of Justice Wilson and Edilson Rosa. Kowal (Krakow, Poland) is seeded fourth and will face the winner of Aryan Arora and Neil J B King after a first-round bye.
Senior Luka Cvjetkovic (Bijeljina, Bosnia) is the only upperclassman on the roster. He opens Flight B singles play at 3 p.m. Thursday against Emmanuel Wettey. The winner meets the winner of No. 8 seed Joseph Puig McCallan and Mihnea Petru Stanciu.
All singles draws include a consolation bracket for first-round losers. Play continues through Sunday's finals.
Follow the Spartans
Live draws and results are available at HBCUtennis.com. Follow @nsuathletics on social media for updates throughout the weekend.
