FLUSHING, N.Y. – Looking to end their home stand on a high note, the Queens College men's tennis team
(9-3 overall, 1-1 ECC) fell short in a closely-contested East Coast Conference match against the visiting Saint Thomas Aquinas College Spartans
(11-0 overall, 1-0 ECC) Friday afternoon inside the Queens College Tennis Bubble.
The Knights began the afternoon behind as they dropped the doubles points before earning two victories in singles play, but two closely contested single matches at #1 and #2 singles would go into a tiebreaker before the Spartans defeated the home side to the final score of 4-2.
In doubles play, the #3 doubles duo of graduate student
Moritz Borges (Hunxe, Germany) and sophomore
Cameron Henricy (Las Palmas, Spain) would fall 6-4 to the duo of Ondrej Sramek and Tony Khamassi.
Queens would begin singles play trailing 1-0 as the #2 doubles duo of graduate student
Lluis Miralles Miro (Barcelona, Spain) and senior
Lucas Demuth (Buenos Aires, Argentina) fell 7-5 to Tobias Fuerschuss and Don Lominoque.
The #1 doubles duo of junior
Roni Rikkonen (Tampere, Finland) and senior
Kareem Rashad (Alexandria, Egypt) match against Ludovico Truffelli and Ody Papaioannou went unfinished with the score tied 5-5.
To begin singles play, Borges would tie the match at 1-1 as the senior defeated Lominoque with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at #6 singles court.
But the Spartans would regain a 2-1 lead as senior
Mariano Bibiloni (La Plata, Argentina) fell 6-4, 6-3 at #5 singles to Sramek.
But Demuth would earn a 6-3, 6-3 victory at #4 singles over Spartans Lennart Lehmann as Queens had tied the match 2-2.
The last three singles matches would add drama to the final as they were in the third set.
At #1 singles Rikkonen lost the first 7-5 to Papaioannou before earning a convincing 6-1 second victory to force a third set.
While #2 singles Henricy fell 6-4 in the first set before earning a 6-2 victory over Truffelli to force a third set and at #3 singles Rashad won the first set 6-2 over Fuerschuss before the visitor forced a third with a 6-4 victory over Rashad.
With all three singles in the deciding set and anybody match for the taking, the singles action at #1 and #2 would go into a tiebreaker as three complete sets were enough.
But it would be heartbreak for the Knights as Rikkonen fell 7-6
(7-4) as the Spartans took a 3-2 lead before Henricy fell 7-6
(10-8) as the Spartans took the first meeting of the season to the final score of 4-2.
UP NEXT: Head coach
Somadi Druker and the Knights return to the road for the first time since February 18 as they travel to the nation's capital on Monday (Mar. 27) afternoon with a matchup against the Firebirds of the University of the District of Columbia. First serve set for 1:00 p.m.
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