TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Bethune-Cookman travels to the highest of seven hills for two key Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference matches at Florida A&M Saturday. Then on Sunday, the men play that other Tallahassee team – No. 23 Florida State.
Both Saturday matches will go a long way in determining the No. 1 seeds at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament April 21-23 in Norfolk, Va., but that's what you expect anytime Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M meet in any sport.
Coming off last weekend's 5-2 win at South Carolina State, the Lady Wildcats (11-11 overall, 5-0 MEAC South) can clinch their consecutive No. 1 seed outright with a victory over the Rattlers (7-11, 3-1). If the Lady Wildcats loss, they could still take the No. 1 seed if the final score is 4-3 and South Carolina State defeats North Carolina A&T next weekend as determined by the MEAC three-way tiebreaker.
The Wildcat men (10-11,2-1) dropped a 4-3 decision to South Carolina last weekend, but could invoke all sort of tiebreaker fun if they down the Rattlers (7-9,3-0). A B-CU victory of 5-2 or better and a South Carolina State next weekend against North Carolina A&T would give the Wildcats the top berth.
Saturday's action at FAMU begins at 10 a.m. The FSU match starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
WOMEN'S UPDATE: B-CU has won 17 consecutive MEAC regular season matches and currently has a five-match winning streak against the Rattlers … Mina Matsuba dropped her first-ever MEAC match during doubles play last week, but is still 21-0 (including tournament play) in singles; the two-time MEAC player of the year has won eight straight singles matches … Alejandra Vidal has won seven straight matches and is a combined 28-13 this season; she's undefeated in both singles and doubles conference play … Ancia Ifill and Matea Roki join Matsuba and Vidal in being undefeated in singles conference play…A win Saturday would give the Lady Wildcats their fifth consecutive winning regular season.
MEN'S UPDATE: The Wildcats have lost their two last matches after running off six in a row before … Alvaro Barrera leads the team in singles victory with 14 … Alexander Chepik and Walid Gtari are both undefeated (3-0) in singles conference play … The doubles tandem of Chepik/Greg Almeida is 8-7 overall and 2-1 in league play … Last year's victory over Florida A&M was the program's first.
ABOUT FAMU: Dominique Henry (9-5 in singles and 8-7 doubles) and Arrice Robinson (11-6,7-9) pace the FAMU women while Walner Espinoza (10-5,10-3) leads the Rattler men. Carlos Waitman, whose unique partnership with B-CU's Barrera nearly produced a flight championship at the Juan Varon Wildcat Invitational back in October, is 10-3 in doubles.
ABOUT FSU: The Seminoles (14-7 overall, 6-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) enter a busy weekend that sees them host Louisville on Saturday and North Carolina State Sunday prior to our match. They're currently fifth in the ACC. Benjamin Lock is ranked tenth and Marco Nunez 74th in the nation in singles and the Lock/Nunez duo is ranked 74th in the country. B-CU and FSU met in 2013, with the Seminoles taking a 7-0 win.
WEEKEND COVERAGE: Follow our official twitter feeds -- @CatsTennis and @BCUathletics – for updates Saturday. On Sunday, live stats on Seminoles.com will allow you to follow the match and attend the Spring Concert in the Performing Arts Center that starts at 4 p.m.
