PHILADELPHIA, PA. – On Thursday afternoon, the nationally-ranked #45 Queens College men's tennis team opened a four-game road trip beginning with nationally-ranked #51 Jefferson University Rams at Legacy Tennis Center.
The Knights would use a doubles point victory for an early lead before winning four singles competitions to defeat the Rams 5-2 Thursday afternoon for their third victory of the season against a ranked opponent.
With the win, the Knights improved to 12-7 overall, while the Rams moved to 12-4 on the season.
In the first
NCAA Regional poll released on April 12, head coach
Somadi Druker and the Knights are ranked third in the East region behind Le Moyne and Southern New Hampshire University. While Rams are ranked sixth in the region.
Doubles Competition
Queens fell behind 1-0 as the #1 doubles junior duo of
Kareem Rashad (Alexandria, Egypt) /
Lucas Demuth (Buenos Aires, Argentina) fell 6-1 to Rams German Lopez Andujar/Hubert Theriault.
But the Knights would tie the match as the #2 doubles pair of sophomore
Omar El Shehawey (Cairo, Egypt) / senior
Moritz Borges (Hunxe, Germany) defeated Hannibal Borg/E. Soto Ballester to the score of 6-4.
It would be a hard-fought victory at #3 doubles as the duo of junior
Mariano Bibiloni (La Plata, Argentina ) / sophomore
Tim Ostheimer (Frankfurt, Germany) won 7-6
(7-0) in the tiebreaker over Mateo Navarro/Odissey Kavak for a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.
Singles Competition
Shehawey would put the Knights up 2-0 as he defeated Jamil Racho at #4 singles to the score of 6-2, 6-0.
Bibiloni put the visitors in a commanding lead of 3-0 with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Navarro at #2 singles.
Freshman
Philipp Uhde (Heidelberg, Germany) would clinch the match for the Knights with a 7-5, 6-3 at #5 singles over Kavak.
The Knights would take a 5-0 lead as sophomore
Francisco Gonzalez (La Plata, Argentina) defeated Ahmed Aboseada to the score of 6-2, 7-5 at #6 singles to earn his second straight victory of the week.
The Rams would prevent the sweep by winning at #1 and #3 singles. Demuth fell at #3 singles in a three-set tiebreaker against Soto. The junior would win the first set 6-1 before Soto battled back to tie the match with a 6-4 second set victory before winning the third set with a 10-8 tiebreaker win.
At #1 singles, Rashad was in a back-and-forth match with the first two sets needing a tiebreaker for a set victory. Rashad won the first set 7-6 (
7-4) before Theriault won the second set with a 7-6
(7-3) victory. But Theriault would clinch the singles match with a 10-5 third-set tiebreaker victory.
UP NEXT: Head Coach
Somadi Druker and the Knights return to East Coast Conference play in the nation's capital as they match up against the University of the District of Columbia Firebirds Friday (Apr. 15) afternoon. First serve is set for 1:00 P.M.
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