ORANGEBURG, SC—The South Carolina State men's and women's tennis teams captured the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) southern division regular season titles with wins over Florida A&M Saturday (April. 1) at the
Hardeep Judge Tennis Center.
The Bulldogs improved to 9-8 overall, 4-0 in the MEAC with an 5-2 victory over the Rattlers to claim back-to-back southern division championships. Meanwhile, the defending MEAC champion Lady Bulldogs (5-8 overall, 5-0 in the MEAC) dominated in fashion to earn their third-straight league win and clinching another regular season crown.
Today was a special day for the seniors who played their last match at home in front of many Bulldog supporters and fans.
"I am so proud of my seniors on both the men and women's team," said head tennis coach
Hardeep Judge. "They battled through injuries and other things to get to this point but at the end they played for each other and that's what champions do."
"We started the match off really slow in doubles and that ended up putting us in the hole 1-0. We came out stronger in singles and l was proud of how the men's team competed by taking 5 out of the 6 singles against a very good FAMU team," Judge said.
Besides dropping the doubles point early in the match, the Bulldogs earned single wins by
Martin Figura (6-3, 6-4) at the No. 1 spot;
Vladyslav Yanchenko (3-6,7-6, 1-0) at the No. 2 spot;
Jakub Vitek (6-2, 6-1) at the No. 3 spot; Soufine Mouline (6-0, 6-1) at the No. 4 spot; and Alexsander Stupar (6-3, 6-3) at the No. 6 spot.
On the women's side, the Lady Bulldogs jumped out early claiming the doubles point with 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 wins. In singles action SC State earned victories by
Intissar Rassif (7-4, 4-6, 1-0) at the No. 1 spot; Oleksandra Fillippova (6-4,6-2) at the No. 2 spot;
Marketa Marcanikova (6-1,6-2) at the No. 4 spot;
Claudia Roca (6-2,6-0) at the No.5 spot; and Petreanu (6-4, 6-1) at the No. 6 spot.
"I was very happy with how this team competed today. We didn't play our best but really stayed focused," stated Judge. "The women's team has really worked hard the last month and it's starting to pay dividends and to go undefeated in regular season conference play means so much."
With the win, today both teams earned the top-seed in the upcoming Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tennis Championships to be held April 20-24 in Norfolk, VA at Old Dominion University.
For more information on South Carolina State Athletics visit
www.scsuathletics.com or call the Office of Athletic Media Relations at (803) 536-7060.
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