CARY, N.C., April 29, 2022 – Howard University and South Carolina State advanced to the women's championship match of the 2022 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tennis Championship following their semifinal wins on Friday morning at the Cary Tennis Park.
The Bison are seeking their first MEAC title in women's tennis since 1995 and their sixth overall. The defending champion Bulldogs will be going for their third straight championship, 15th title in the last 17 years and their 16th overall.
Match 1: Howard 4, North Carolina Central 0
The top-seeded Bison took advantage of North Carolina Central only having four players, claiming the doubles point and essentially holding a 3-0 lead going into singles play after taking the No. 5 and 6 slots by default.Sifa Butcher then clinched the match at No. 2 singles, defeating Maria Picazo 6-0, 6-1.
Match 2: South Carolina State 4, Morgan State 2
South Carolina State took the doubles point to open proceedings, with Lasya Patnaik and Nalanda Silva winning 6-4 at No. 2 and Teodora Vujicic and Anabel Aguilar winning 6-3 at No. 3.
Morgan State's Nolwenn Cardoso won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 4 singles to tie the match at 1-1, but Patnaik gave the Bulldogs the lead back in defeating Ana-Lei Kalawe 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 1 singles position. Asmara Rose then tied things up at 2-2 with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Aguilar at No. 6.
South Carolina State clinched after Ikram Rassif (6-3, 6-4 over Anabel Aran) and Silva (7-6 [7-3], 6-3 over Averiana Mitchell) won at No. 5 and No. 3 singles, respectively.
From there, the No. 3 seeded Bulldogs
The women's championship match will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and it will be streamed live on HBCUGO; visit hbcugo.tv for more information and to download the free HBCUGO app on Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV.
For more information on the 2022 MEAC Tennis Championships, please visit the Championship Central page.
About the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is in its 51st year of intercollegiate competition with the 2021-22 academic school year. Located in Norfolk, Va., the MEAC is made up of eight outstanding historically black institutions across the Atlantic coastline: Coppin State University, Delaware State University, Howard University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina Central University and South Carolina State University.
