RALEIGH, NC,-The South Carolina State men's and women's tennis teams will compete for yet another Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference(MEAC) championship Sunday at the Millbrook Tennis Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
          The reigning MEAC Champion South Carolina State Lady Bulldogs, earned the top seed in the south, defeating No. 3 Bethune-Cookman Lady Wildcats 4-0 and will compete for their sixth straight MEAC women's tennis title and seventh overall. The Lady Bulldogs' took the lead going into singles play after winning the doubles points at the number two (8-3) and number three (8-5) spots. Amy Chen guided SCSU to the final with the deciding win at the number six spot over B-CU's Jeneice Ward (6-3, 6-1). The Lady Bulldogs also won points at the number three, and five singles positions.
        "We started off slow in doubles play, but turned it up a nocth in singles action, " said SC State coach Hardeep Judge." We are banged up and not really healthy, so we had to play at a great level in order to compete."
        Judge also stated, " We play a really good Howard Lady Bison team tomorrow so we have to be ready to play."
        Howard, the top seed in the north defeated No. 2 Florida A&M, 4-0, and will vie for their first tennis championship title since the 1995 season. 
         In men's semi-final action, it was the defending men's champion top seeded South Carolina State defeating the Hampton Pirates to earn a spot in the men's title match. The Bulldogs won the doubles point and followed with wins at the two, four, five and six singles positions. Dmytro Kovalevych defeated Hampton's Edson Alves (6-2,6-4) at the number four spot, while Alexsadr Malko topped Alvin Fludd (6-2, 6-2) at the same time to lead the defending MEAC Champion Bulldogs to a 5-0 sweep of Hampton and a trip the championship finale aganist FAMU.
         "Again we started off slow and picked up on doubles a little at the end," said Judge."It's a great feeling beating Hampton and moving on playing hard aganist Florida A&M. We get a chance to avenge a earlier season conference loss this season."
          The Florida A&M Rattlers defeating the Howard Bison in a match that lasted three hours. Florida A&M took the lead after winning the doubles point at the number one (8-6) and Junior Maurice Wamokowa defeated Howard's Tonique Merrell 6-4, 6-4 to lead the Rattlers to their first championship appearance since the 2008 season. 
          Judge shared, " It feels good to be the underdog." No one really gave us a chance this season and if anything I am happy for these kids, they fought hard all season.
          South Carolina State Lady Bulldogs and Howard Lady Bison will compete  in the 2010 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tennis Championship women's final beginning at 9 a.m. followed by the South Carolina State Bulldogs and the Florida A&M Rattlers men's finale at 11:30 a.m.
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