ORANGEBURG, N.Y. – It was a match that lasted three and a half hours but the Queens College men's tennis team used a big doubles competition win to defeat the nationally ranked #36 St. Thomas Aquinas College Spartans Saturday evening 4-3 at Match Point Tennis Club.
With the win, Queens improves their record to 8-4 overall, 2-0 in ECC play extending their win streak to seven games, while STAC fell to 9-4 overall, 0-1 in conference play.
Doubles Competition
Queens took an early lead into doubles play as #3 doubles pair of junior
Mariano Bibiloni (La Plata, Argentina ) / sophomore
Tim Ostheimer (Frankfurt, Germany) defeated Odysseas Papaioannou/Tony Khamassi to the score of 6-2.
Queens would clinch the doubles point as the #2 doubles duo of junior
Kareem Rashad (Alexandria, Egypt) / junior
Lucas Demuth (Buenos Aires, Argentina) defeated Maximilian Kendler/Ivan Laiz to the score of 6-3.
But the Spartans avoided the sweep as the Knights' #1 doubles duo of sophomore
Omar El Shehawey (Cairo, Egypt) /senior
Moritz Borges (Hunxe, Germany) fell 6-4 to the duo of Eduard Simo/Ludovico/Truffelli.
Singles Competition
Bibiloni put the Knights up 2-0 as he defeated Simo at #2 singles in straight sets to the score of 6-4, 6-2.
But Lennart Lehmann brought the Spartans within one as he defeated Demuth at #3 singles to the score of 6-2, 7-6
(7-2).
Borges would put Queens in a commanding position with a three-set victory at #5 singles over Truffelli. The German native would need to rally back from a first set down of 6-1 as he took the last two sets to the score of 6-3, 6-4 putting the Knights up 3-1.
Rashad clinched the match for the Knights at #1 singles in a three-set victory over Kendler. Rashad won the first set 6-1 before falling 7-5 in the second set. But the Egyptian native wasted no time in the third set as he took a convincing third set victory of 6-1 to give Queens the match and a 4-1 lead.
The Spartans would take singles action #4 and #6. Shehawey fell in three-set as he lost the first set 6-4 before battling back to win the second 6-3. But he would fall to Papaioannou in the third set to the score of 6-3.
In a match that saw four singles matches go to the third set, freshman
Philipp Uhde (Heidelberg, Germany) fell to Laiz in another close three-set final. Udhe lost the first set 6-4 before battling back to force the tiebreaker with a 7-5 second victory. But the rookie would fall short as he fell in a closely contested final set to the score of 7-5.
But the Knights would move to 2-0 in conference play with a 4-3 victory over the nationally ranked #36 Spartans.
UP NEXT: Head Coach
Somadi Druker and the Knights will have less than 12 hours to rest as they travel to Newark, N.J. on Sunday (Mar. 27) afternoon with a cross-divisional matchup against NJIT Highlanders. First serve is set for 1:00 p.m.
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