BRONX, N.Y. – Continuing their road stand the Queens College men's tennis team made the trip to Hawthrorn/Rooney Courts in the Bronx as the Knights matched up against Division I Rams of Fordham University in non-conference play Wednesday afternoon.
Matching up against a D1 opponent for the second straight match and their sixth overall of the year, the Knights would fall short in doubles play before rallying in singles play as Queens earned victories as #3, #5, #6, and #2 singles to earn the non-conference match victory to the finals score of 4-3.
With the win, the Knights improved to 7-6 overall on the year.
Doubles
The Rams took an early lead in doubles play as the #2 pair of senior
Omar El Shehawey (Cairo, Egypt) and sophomore
Lucas Foix Sotos (Javea, Spain) fell to John Mascone and Giorgio Soemarno to the score of 3-6.
But the #3 doubles pair of senior
Francisco Gonzalez (La Plata, Argentina) and freshman
David Cerne (Ljubljana, Slovenia) would defeat Stefan Stojanovic and Bingru Chen to the score of 6-3 to tie the doubles actions at 1-1.
However, it would be the Rams who would take the 1-0 lead into singles play as the #1 doubles pair of senior
Roni Rikkonen (Tampere, Finland) and junior
Cameron Henricy (Las Palmas, Spain) fell to Nicholas Kanazirev and D. Virdee-Oakley to the score of 4-6.
Singles
Trailing 1-0, freshman
Tim Andersson (Linkoping, Sweden) would start the rally at #3 singles as he completed a two-set victory over Virdee-Oakley to the score of 6-1, 6-3.
But the Rams would take a 2-1 lead as Rikkonen fell to Kanazirev to the score of 1-6,3-6 at #1 singles.
El Shehawey would earn a convincing victory at #5 singles over Stojanovic to the score of 6-2, 6-1 to tie the match at 2-2 before freshman
Noah Gauthier (La Colle-sur-Loup, France) defeated Chen to the score of 6-4, 6-1 at #6 singles to put the Knights up 3-2.
Down to the final two matches at #4 and #2 singles and both matches in the third set, the Rams would tie the match at 3-3 as Foix Sotos fell to Mascone to the score of 6-4, 3-6, 1-6 in a tough three-set battle.
With the match tied 3-3 and attention now on #2 singles, Henricy would clinch the match with a three-set comeback victory over Soemarno. As Soemarno took the first set to the score of 6-3, Henricy would earn a convincing victory in the second set to the score of 6-1 to force the third and deciding set. It would be back and forth battle before the junior earned a 7-5 third set victory to clinch the comeback win to the final score of 4-3 Wednesday afternoon.
Next Serve
The Knights return to East Coast Conference play with a weekend trip to Buffalo as they match up against the Wildcats of Daemen University. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m.
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