FLUSHING, N.Y. (May 14, 2019) - The feeling of deja vu struck the Queens College women's tennis team after the Knights fell to NYIT in doubles play on Tuesday (May 14) in a tiebreak. Seven months ago, the same thing happened in the East Coast Conference Championship and the Bears went on to a 4-3 win over QC to claim the ECC title.

This time, however, the Knights were undeterred and locked up a spot in the NCAA Division II Round of 16 once again; Luisa Auffarth's match-winning back-hand in second singles punched the ticket as Queens claimed a 4-2 win over their conference rivals in Flushing.

Earlier on in the day, Auffarth had teamed with Reehan Rashad to win a 6-2 decision at the top tandem of doubles against NYIT's Ann-Kathrin Zilles and Monica Borobia. Both second and third doubles went longer than expected, with the Bears' Barbie Quagliardi and Kaitlyn Byrnes pulling out a 7-5 win against Marisa Ostoja and Laura Ortega Jover at the No. 3 spot to make the final match a winner-take-all. In that second doubles match, Louisa Brunetti and Anica Knezevic had rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to take a lead before settling for a tie-break against Ivana Andric and Diana Baumgartnere. The irony in the match-up was that Knezevic was involved in the ECC Championship tie-breaker against NYIT back in October; unfortunately, the result was the same as NYIT's duo won a 7-2 decision to claim a 7-6 victory and put the Bears ahead by a 1-0 margin.

As singles play commenced on all six courts, the Knights took a lead in five of the six matches and needed just four points to win. However, Quagliardi's 6-4, 6-1 win over Rashad at the No. 1 spot put Queens in a 2-0 hole. Mere moments later, however, the Knights were up 3-2 as Brunetti, Ortega Jover and Ostoja all won their matches over the course of a minute. That meant that the final point would come from either Ruth Artaza Martin at the sixth-flight or Auffarth at second-singles. Both players were up a set but Artaza Martin lost a difficult second set to Borobia by a 6-4 margin, meaning that their match would go the distance. Auffarth, however, traded punishing forehands with Baumgartnere as the Bears' German sophomore staved off several match points to get to a 5-5 tie in the second set. Auffarth broke Baumgartnere in the next game and served for the match at 6-5. On match point, a long rally commenced with Auffarth ultimately ripping a back-handed shot down the line and in to clinch the match, the regional title and a spot in the Round of 16 for the Knights.