NORFOLK, Va (WAVY) — Norfolk State Men’s Tennis has longed for success on the court. This season, the Spartans are in the middle of a six game winning streak, and are making legitimate noise to win their first ever MEAC Championship.

Last season, the Spartans lost in the MEAC Semifinals, which is something Head Coach Peter Banas doesn’t want to experience again. He wants to get a banner at the Tennis facility.

“We’ve been working for the whole year to do it. We hated that we lost in the semifinal. We are definitely on the right track,” said Banas.

Norfolk has a lot of talent on this year’s team including a pair of players who have shared the court as doubles teammates, and have very unique stories of how they got here in the first place.

Starting with Chesapeake native and Graduate Student Doubles player Boris Lunin, who paused his tennis career during COVID to chase the dream of becoming the best on the sticks.

“My goal at that time of my life was to be a World Champion in something and I realized I’m not going to win any grand slams or even be a pro. The next thing I was best at was video games,” said Lunin.

Boris went on to win back-to-back Call of Duty World Championships in 2021 and 2022 under the gamertag of BoLu. His Social Media accounts amassed over 100,000 followers and he quickly became popular in the gaming world, earning over $1.2 Million.

Since retiring from gaming, Boris has been on the tennis team full-time here at Norfolk State, where he’s shared the court with Vladisav Gorbatenko.

Vlad is the number 1 singles player on the Spartans, but also shares the court with Lunin as a doubles pairing. His journey Norfolk State was incredibly unique.

“My process wasn’t as usual as other people because I was drafted for the war,” said Gorbatenko “The war started. The army officer comes to my house and comes to get me.. I didn’t answer the door. I took one bag, went to the airport and flew away.. I never planned to come to America.. but, I said hey I can come to America and play tennis,” said Gorbatenko.

Now, the two share the court for the Spartans and are leading the charge in NSU’s first MEAC Championship in school history.

Up Next: The Spartans will host Hampton Tuesday, April 1 at noon.