NORFOLK, Va. (April 27, 2019)-- The Morgan State men's tennis team captured their first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championship in program history with a 4-2 win over defending champion South Carolina State on Saturday afternoon.
Morgan State earned the MEAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship, the field for which will be unveiled on NCAA.com on Monday at 6 p.m. EST.
Head coach Matthew Townes, noted "Even though we have been able to capture 8 straight divisional titles, the conference championship is the one that counts the most."
"I'm so proud of the efforts and mental focus each Bear exhibited throughout the tournament," added Townes. "Winning the first one in school history is extremely special and I'm very grateful to be a part of it. Our motto from the beginning of the season was "Us Against The World", and it feels amazing to see our plan come into fruition."
"We believed we could win the championship and half of the work was already done, said senior captain Arjun Ramakrishnan. "All the early morning practices and the throwing up at practice, all the hard work paid off today. The result was waiting for us to be secured, and we got it."
The Bears made short work of the doubles portion to open things up, as Oguzhan Ceylan and Nihit Rawal defeated Gerardo Bontifacio and Selim Ben Ali 6-3 – before Serhii Kharchev and Arjun Ramakrishnan outlasted Aleska Daskalovic and Adam Kalicoda at No. 2 doubles, 7-6 (7-1).
With Morgan State up 1-0, Rawal shined at No. 3 singles, defeating Marcelo Rodriguez 6-3, 6-4 to give the Bears a 2-0 lead. Daskalovic followed at No. 2 singles with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Kharchev to give the Bulldogs their first point of the match.
Bontifacio then tied things with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Sebastian Lopez at No. 5 singles, before Ramakrishnan put the Bears back on top with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Juan Ramirez at the No. 1 singles slot.
That left the Nos. 4 and 6 singles matches remaining, both of which were in the third set. Shrey Gupta at No. 6 finished first, defeating Ben Ali 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 to give the Bears their historic title.
"We were there last year, same place same situation. We saw what happened, letting it slip away. This time we got what we deserved and earned the ring," said Ramakrishnan. "Our goal was set, we worked on our strategy and it worked. I'm happy for the boys and we are about to do some damage at the NCAA."
Rawal was named the tournament's Outstanding Performer. Townes was named Outstanding Coach.
2019 MEACMen's Tennis All-Tournament Team
Singles
1: Victor Bravo, Bethune-Cookman
2: AleskaDaskalovic, South Carolina State
3: NihitRawal, Morgan State
4: OguzhanCeylan, Morgan State
5: Gerardo Bontifacio, South Carolina State
6: ShreyGupta, Morgan State
Doubles
1: Juan Ramirez/Marcelo Rodriguez, South Carolina State
2: SerhiiKharchev/ArjunRamakrishnan, Morgan State
3: OguzhanCeylan/NihitRawal, Morgan State
Outstanding Performer: NihitRawal, Morgan State
Outstanding Coach: Matthew Townes, Morgan State
