Box Score CARY, N.C. (April 23, 2026)--Morgan State's 2026 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tennis championship has come to an end this afternoon in the quarterfinal round. The fourth-seeded Bears would drop a hard-fought match to rival Howard, who was the fifth seed, 4-3 at Cary Tennis Park.
 
The two teams were returning to the court for the first time since facing each other in the regular season finale won by Morgan State by the same 4-3 score at the Southeast Tennis & Learning Center in Washington, D.C. (April 13).
 
Thursday's match was the third consecutive season that the two Beltway rivals met in the MEAC quarterfinals. Last season Morgan State advanced to the semifinals after defeating the Bison 4-1. The year before Howard tasted victory, defeating the Bears 4-2 in the 2024 quarterfinal.
 
Howard (2-13) would win the doubles point and then claimed wins in the top three singles to capture the victory.
 
The Bison took an early 1-0 lead by securing the doubles point. The Bison's tandem of Marcus Weekes and Kendrick Lash defeated Morgan State's Rhajzon Rankins and Kerouat Yessine 6-4 in a No. 2 doubles match. Fellow Howard teammates Kamran McIntosh-Ross and Michael Major Jr. earned a 6-1 win at No. 1 over Ilya Maltsev and Abdulraheem Isa.
 
Morgan State (7-12) evened the score at 1-1 when Isa earned a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 6 singles. Howard then picked up back-to-back wins at No. 2 and No. 1 singles to with Major Jr. and McIntosh-Ross both earning 6-1, 6-2 victories to increase its lead to 3-1.
 
Despite trailing by two points, the Bears would not go away. Kerouat posted a 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) win over Lash at the No. 5 position and Mohamed R. Ghettas tied up the match with his No. 4 singles win over Shawn Mitchell Yon, 6-3, 7-5.
 
The match would come down to the No. 3 singles contest against Weekes of Howard and Roman Filima. The two would not disappoint, as a third set would be needed to decide the winner. In the end, Weekes would come out victorious with the 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win to send Howard to Friday's semifinal against the reigning champion South Carolina State.    


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ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution offering nearly 140 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's Preeminent Public Urban Research University, and the only university to have its entire campus designated as a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.