Michael Shipma
Sports Editor
After a strong showing in Tallahassee, the Troy men’s tennis team dropped its next two matchups, losing 2-5 at North Carolina State and 2-4 at North Carolina-Greensboro.
The Trojans’ first match of the weekend and their first true road match came on Friday against The Wolfpack in Raleigh, N.C., where Troy got off to a hot start in doubles play. Andre Baldo and Hassan Ndayishimiye defeated N.C. State’s Ivan Saveljic and Igor Saveljic 6-3 to start things off before Filip Mansson and Austine Racine took down The Wolfpack’s Michael Ogden and Georgiy Malyshev 6-4.
Despite the promising start, the Trojans didn’t win another match except for a lone singles match later in the day.
The third and final doubles match between Troy’s Andy Lau and Pablo Moreno and the host’s Nick Horton and Alexis Galarneau went unfinished.
The lone singles win for Troy came in the fifth of six matches, courtesy of freshman Amer Bedwan’s 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8) win over N.C. State’s Ogden. The rest of the Trojans in singles play all lost, with the closest to earning a win being Lau, who fell to The Wolfpack’s Saveljic by a score of 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.
Two days later, Troy looked to get back to its winning ways against UNCG, but again came up short in a 2-4 loss.
The Trojans couldn’t grind out a win in doubles play, as the duos of Racine/Christopher Taska and Ndayishimiye/Baldo both fell by a score of 6-4. The third and final doubles match of the day of Moreno and Lau versus the Spartans’ Connor Thompson and Marcus Vidgren went unfinished.
Troy found slightly more success in singles play as Troy’s Mustapha Belcora and Bedwan both won their matches. Bedwan started things off with a 6-2, 6-2 win over UNCG’s Jack Burkill, while Belcora ended the singles competition with a 7-5, 6-2 win over William Albright.
Bedwan’s win brought his record to 4-0 in his young dual match career, making the freshman the only Trojan on the men’s tennis roster to have an unblemished record so far in this spring season.
The rest of the Troy roster has struggled thus far, as Lau, Moreno and Ndayishimiye are uncharacteristically combined for a 5-7 record in spring play.
They and the rest of the Trojan tennis squad will look to change that on Saturday, Feb. 4, when they take on Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
