NORFOLK, Va. – Morgan State pushed the Norfolk State men's tennis team out of first place in the MEAC Northern Division with a 5-2 victory over the Spartans on Saturday afternoon at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center on the campus of ODU.
 
The loss dropped NSU to 4-1 in conference play and 6-15 overall. The Bears remained undefeated at 4-0 while also improving to 11-10 overall.

"It was a great win for us today," said MSU head coach Matt Townes. "Norfolk s a very, very good team and we pulled together and played really well today. Now there's one more test for us tomorrow against Hampton."
 
MSU will play Hampton (3-1) on Sunday in the last conference match of the year for both teams. A win by Hampton would force a three-way tie for first place at 4-1. A victory by the Bears would give Morgan State the outright division title and NSU the No. 2 seed from the North in next week's MEAC Championship that begins on Thursday.
 
In the matchup on Saturday, moved indoors due to the threat of high winds in the Norfolk area, NSU defaulted at No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles due to its short-handed lineup. The Bears took the doubles point by winning at the first doubles position, a 6-3 triumph for Treajh Ferguson and Evan Ward over Benedikt Henning and Flavian Fernandez.
 
Jeremy Field and Arjun Ramakrishnan led 4-3 over Antonio Pejic and Fatehdeep Singh at the No. 2 doubles position before the match was called.
 
Morgan State needed just two wins in singles to take the match, and the Bears did so at No. 2 and 4 singles. The second position proved to be a nail biter, as Field and Dan Dumitrascu traded tiebreaker wins. Dumitrascu won the first set, 7-6, including 7-4 in the tiebreaker, while Field rallied to win the second set, 7-6. Field took the tiebreaker by a 7-2 margin to force a third set. There, Field won 6-3 to give MSU the win.
 
Ramakrishnan had won earlier in the match at No. 4 singles, topping Fernandez by a 6-2, 6-3 margin. MSU earned its fifth point when Lucas Krusinski defeated Singh at No. 5 singles in the last match of the day, 6-2 and 7-5.
 
The Spartans took the first and third position for their two points, with Pejic posting a 6-4, 6-4 win over Ward at that third slot. Henning, meanwhile, won at the top spot in the lineup, downing Ferguson 6-2 in the first set and then 7-6 in the second, including 7-4 in the tiebreaker.
 
The MEAC Championship will begin on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.

Morgan State 5, Norfolk State 2
Apr 16, 2016 at Norfolk, Va. (Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center) 

Singles competition

1. HENNING,Benedikt (NSUM) def. FERGUSON,Treajh (MSUM) 6-2, 7-6 (7-4)

2. FIELD,Jeremy (MSUM) def. DUMITRASCU,Dan (NSUM) 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-2), 6-3

3. PEJIC,Antonio (NSUM) def. WARD,Evan (MSUM) 6-4, 6-4

4. RAMAKRISHNAN,Arjun (MSUM) def. FERNANDEZ,Flavian (NSUM) 6-2, 6-3

5. KRUSINSKI,Lucas (MSUM) def. SINGH,Fatehdeep (NSUM) 6-2, 7-5

6. SATHYANARAYAN,Sagar (MSUM) def. No player (NSUM), by default

Doubles competition

1. FERGUSON,Treajh/WARD,Evan (MSUM) def. HENNING,Benedikt/FERNANDEZ,Flavian (NSUM) 6-3

2. PEJIC,Antonio/SINGH,Fatehdeep (NSUM) vs. FIELD,Jeremy/RAMAKRISHNAN,Arjun (MSUM) 3-4, unfinished

3. KRUSINSKI,Lucas/ANDRE,Felix (MSUM) def. DUMITRASCU,Dan/No player (NSUM), by default

Match Notes

Morgan State 11-10, 4-0 MEAC

Norfolk State 6-15, 4-1 MEAC