FLUSHING, N.Y. – With the first
2023 NCAA Men's Tennis Regional rankings releasing earlier in the day, the under consideration and nationally ranked #44 Queens College men's tennis (
13-3 overall) welcomed the Dolphins of Le Moyne College (
10-2 overall) to the QC Tennis Bubble Thursday evening.
In a matchup between two teams in the first NCAA D2 East Regional rankings, the Knights for the second straight match would earn a hard fought double points before earning three singles to defeat the Dolphins to the score of 4-2 as the highly contested match lasted over three and a half hours.
With the home portion of the regular season complete, the Knights conclude their homestand with an overall record of 11-1 with four matches remaining set to finish on the road.
For the second straight match, the #3 doubles duo of graduate student
Moritz Borges (Hunxe, Germany) and junior
Omar El Shehawey (Cairo, Egypt) gave Queens an early 1-0 as they dispatched Kacper Piekarek and Rodrigo Beires to the score of 6-2.
But the Dolphins would tie the match at 1-1 as the #1 doubles pair of junior
Roni Rikkonen (Tampere, Finland) and senior
Kareem Rashad (Alexandria, Egypt) fell to Peter Hatton and Manuel Righi to the score of 7-5 in a closely contested match.
With the match tied 1-1, the action at #2 doubles between the Knights pair of graduate student
Lluis Miralles Miro (Barcelona, Spain) and senior
Lucas Demuth (Buenos Aires, Argentina) versus Tom Jarry and Ethan Miller was just getting started.
But the deciding point of the doubles action would be decided in a tiebreaker fashion before the Queens duo clinched the doubles point with a 7-6
(7-1) victory as the Knights took a 1-0 lead into singles play.
Miro made quick work of Alberto Diaz at #6 singles as the graduate student earned a 6-1, 6-2 victory to give the Knights a 2-0 lead.
The lead would be cut down to 2-1 as Rikkonen fell at #1 singles to Hatton in a three-set match to the score of 1-6, 6-4, 0-6.
As the Dolphins trimmed the Knights advantage down to 2-1, Borges put Queens up 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Piekarek at #5 singles.
Down to the last three singles, all remaining singles matches would go into the third set to ultimately decide the winner.
At #2 singles, sophomore
Cameron Henricy (Las Palmas, Spain) earned the first set victory over Righi of 6-4 before Righi forced a third set with a 6-2 victory over Henricy.
While at #3 singles, Rashad would drop the first set to the score of 6-2 to Jarry before the senior fought back with a 6-3 second set victory.
And at #4 singles, Demuth fell 6-2 to Miller in the first before the senior forced a third set with a 6-3 victory.
In a match that touched over the three-hour mark, the Dolphins would cut the deficit down to 3-2 as Demuth in the third set to the score of 6-2.
But the winning point would come from Rashad as the Egyptian native held his nerve to win the third set to the score of 6-4 as Queens clinched the match to the final score of 4-2.
While Henricy's third set went unfinished with the sophomore up 3-2
(30-0).
With the win over the Dolphins, the Knights ended a two-match losing streak and earned their first win since the 2018-19 season when Queens won 5-2 in Flushing.
UP NEXT: Head coach
Somadi Druker and the Knights conclude the regular season with four straight matches on the road beginning with a three-match trip to the Sunshine State. The trip's first serve gets underway on Wednesday (Apr. 12) afternoon as they match up against Barry University Buccaneers at the USTA Training Center. First serve set for 3:00 p.m.
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