FLUSHING, N.Y. – Continuing their two-match homestand Tuesday morning the Queens College men's tennis team welcomed Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights to the QC Tennis Bubble in non-conference play.
In a match that lasted over four and half hours, the visitors won the doubles points with victories at #2 and #1 doubles as they took the doubles points with a tiebreaker victory at #1 doubles before both sides split the singles action as Queens fell short to the final score of 4-3 Tuesday afternoon.
With the loss, the Knights moved to 5-5 overall on the year.
Doubles
FDU would take the doubles points at #2 court as Queens duo of sophomore
Lucas Foix Sotos (Javea, Spain) and senior
Omar El Shehawey (Cairo, Egypt) fell to Gryffin Minor and Asaf Schwartz to the score of 3-6.
But Queens would tie the doubles action with a victory at #3 court as the duo of senior
Francisco Gonzalez (La Plata, Argentina) and freshman
Tim Andersson (Linkoping, Sweden) defeated Arjun Sriram and Andrew Nicolae to the score of 6-4.
Down to the final doubles match to decide the doubles point, the duo of senior
Roni Rikkonen (Tampere, Finland) and junior
Cameron Henricy (Las Palmas, Spain) would go back and forth against Thomas Linley and Joshua Oboniye. As the Queens pair forced the tiebreaker to decide the outcome, both sides would trade points but the visitors would take a 1-0 lead into singles play with a 7-6
(7-5) victory.
Singles
It would be backbreaking singles action as four courts were decided in the third set to decide the outcome of the match.
El Shehawey at #4 singles would tie the match at 1-1 as he knocked off Schwartz to the score of 6-2, 6-2.
But FDU would take a 2-1 lead as Henricy fell to Minor in a three-set battle at #2 court to the score of 6-3, 3-6, 4-6.
Promoted to #1 singles for the first time in his young career Andersson would take the first set over Linley to the score of 7-6
(7-4) before Linley earned the victory with a 6-3, 6-4 comeback to put the visitors up 3-1.
However, Queens would rally as rookie
Noah Gauthier (La Colle-sur-Loup, France) made quick work of Matias Neira to the score of 6-0, 6-2 at #6 singles as the home Knights were now one singles victory away from tying the match.
At #3 singles Foix Sotos would earn a three-set comeback victory over Tauras Mickus. The sophomore dropped the first set in a 5-7 loss before forcing the deciding third set with a 6-4 second set victory. In the third set, both Knights would go back and forth in a singles match that lasted close to three hours. The third set victory would come down to the tiebreaker before Fios Sotos closed out his singles match with a 7-6
(7-5) victory as Queens tied the overall match 3-3.
Down to the #5 singles between Gonzalez and Jorge Alonso-Cortes, Gonzalez would take the first set to the score of 6-3 before Alonso-Cortes forced the third set with a second set 7-6
(7-5) tiebreaker victory. The third set would be decided in a 10-point tiebreaker but it would be the visiting Knights who would earn the match victory with a 10-8 third set victory over Queens.
Next Serve
The Knights will now rest and prepare for a road contest in Sparkill on Saturday (Apr. 6) as they match up against the Spartans of St. Thomas Aquinas College in East Coast Conference play. First serve is set for noon.
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