HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Playing their final cross-divisional matchup of the season, the Queens College men's tennis team traveled to Hempstead, New York as they matched up against Division I member Hofstra University Pride Tuesday afternoon at Hofstra Tennis Court.
But the Pride would take the crucial doubles point to defeat the Knights 4-3 with both sides splitting the singles matches.
With the loss, the Knights moved to 11-7 overall, while the Pride improved to 5-7 on the season.
Doubles Competition
The Knights found themselves trailing early on as the Pride won the first two doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead into singles play.
Queens #1 doubles pair of sophomore
Omar El Shehawey (Cairo, Egypt) / senior
Moritz Borges (Hunxe, Germany) fell to Bo Cautaerts/Ostap Kovalenko to the score of 6-3.
The Pride clinched the doubles point as the #2 doubles junior duo of
Kareem Rashad (Alexandria, Egypt) /
Lucas Demuth (Buenos Aires, Argentina) fell 6-4 to Josh Reynolds/Vincent Turina.
The Knights would avoid the doubles sweep as senior
Hugo Evangelista de Andrade (Goiania, Brazil) / junior
Mariano Bibiloni (La Plata, Argentina ) defeated Jonathan Mahrt Guyou/Hideki Matsuoka to the score of 7-5.
Singles Competition
Borges would tie the match 1-1 as he defeated Guyou at #5 singles to the score of 6-2, 6-2.
But Bibiloni would fall at #2 singles as the Pride took a 2-1 lead as Kovalenko defeated the junior 6-1, 6-1.
Once again Shehawey would tie the match for the Knights at #4 singles with a hard-fought first set victory in a tiebreaker fashion to the score of 7-6
(7-1), before cruising to a 6-2 in the second set over Turina.
The back-and-forth match would continue as Demuth fell at #3 singles as Reynolds picked up a 7-6
(7-4), 7-5 giving Hofstra a 3-2 lead.
Playing for the first time since March 15, sophomore
Francisco Gonzalez (La Plata, Argentina ) returned to singles competition and picked up a three-set victory over Matsuoka at #6 singles. The sophomore would fall 6-1 in the first set before he bounced back with back-to-back set victories with a 6-1, 6-4 victory to the match 3-3.
With the match tied 3-3, attention shifted to #1 singles as Rashad took on Cautaerts. The Egyptian native would take the first set to the score of 7-5 before Cautaerts tied the match with a 6-3 second set victory. But Hofstra would take the match 4-3 as Rashad fell 6-2 in the third set to conclude a thrilling cross-divisional matchup in Hempstead.
UP NEXT: Head Coach
Somadi Druker and the Knights open a four-game road trip Thursday (Apr. 14) afternoon as the Knights travel to Philadelphia, PA starting with a non-conference matchup against Jefferson University Rams. First serve is set for 2:30 P.M.
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