Men's Tennis | 9/17/2019 10:10:00 AM
FLUSHING, N.Y. (Sept. 17, 2019) – The Queens College tennis programs concluded their hosting of the ITA East Region Tournament on Monday (Sept. 16) with several players making significant strides throughout the course of the tournament.
On the women's side of the tournament, freshman Maja Makal won the singles championship by outlasting Magdalena Hubickova of Southern New Hampshire in a three-set final on Monday (read about Makal's full run to the title here). Several other Knights had run-ins with Hubickova throughout the tournament; Luisa Auffarth was the No. 2 seed in the region and won her way to the semi-finals before losing to the fourteenth-seed from SNHU. Meanwhile, sixth-seed Louisa Brunetti lost a three-set quarterfinal to Hubickova which prevented an all-QC semi-final and potentially an all-QC final. Marisa Ostoja, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, lost in the second round to Cassandra Rohr of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The other members of the Knights won their way through qualifying to get into the main draw and had varied successes. Among them was Anica Knezevic as the senior knocked off seventh-ranked Isabelle Porter of Stonehill before losing in the third round to Birdez Oz of Le Moyne. Freshman Gabriela Sciarrotta also made it to the third round of play before losing to Stonehill's Alexandra Vo, the eighth-seeded player in the region. Ruth Artaza Martin and Mana Koitabashi were first-round winners that were eliminated in the second round while Lovisa Engstrand fell in the opening stages to eventual semifinalist Ebba Rosberg of Concordia (NY).
The Knights were eliminated from doubles play in the third round, with the tandem of Auffarth and Makal losing along with the team of Brunetti and Engstrand. QC had two other doubles teams in the draw, with Koitabashi and Artaza Martin falling in the second round of play. Meanwhile, Knezevic and Aleksandra Caricic were also defeated in the second round of the tournament.
In the men's tournament, the Knights had three representatives in the third-round of singles play including third-seed Kareem Rashad. The reigning ITA East Region Rookie of the Year was bounced in an upset by Odysseas Papioannou of St. Thomas Aquinas. Meanwhile, newcomer Eduardo Marino was the No. 14 seed in the region and fell to second-ranked William Nilsson of Concordia (NY). Lastly, Moritz Borges made his debut with a third-round appearance but a loss to fifth-seed Jay Godfrey Seno of Concordia. Mariano Biblioni, Francisco Gonzalez and Nick Volos were all defeated in the second round while twelfth-seed Lucas Demuth and Hugo Evangelista de Andrade did not advance past the first round of play.
Rashad and Marino were the fifth-seed tandem in the doubles draw and made it to the quarterfinals where they were knocked out by Nilsson and Seno. The three other tandems for the Knights were all bested in the third-round of play.
