FLUSHING, N.Y. – Advancing to their 10
th straight East Coast Conference Championship match, the Queens College men's tennis team matched up against the Spartans of St. Thomas Aquinas College for the fifth straight time inside the QC Tennis Bubble Saturday evening.
It would be back and forth affair in doubles before the #2 doubles duo of sophomore
Lucas Foix Sotos (Javea, Spain) and senior
Cameron Henricy (Las Palmas, Spain) clinched the doubles points for a 1-0 lead. Behind three singles victories at #4 from Foix Sotos, #5 from senior
Omar El Shehawey (Cairo, Egypt), and senior
Roni Rikkonen (Tampere, Finland) who battled to force a three-set comeback victory at #1 singles, Queens would earn a 4-1 victory to win their 10
th ECC Title in program history and sixth in seven seasons.
With the win, the Knights improved to 15-6 overall on the year.
Doubles
The #3 pair of senior
Francisco Gonzalez (La Plata, Argentina) and freshman
Tim Andersson (Linkoping, Sweden) would give the Knights an early lead in doubles play with a 6-4 victory over Seth Newman and Henry Ronnberg. With the Queens pair down 2-0, the Knights would battle back with five straight points to take a 5-2 lead. But the Spartans duo would cut the advantage down to 5-4 before the Knights duo helped the #1 seed take a 1-0 lead.
However, the Spartans #1 pair of Ondrej Sramek and Ludovico Truffelli would defeat Rikkonen and El Shehawey to the final score of 6-3 to tie the doubles action at 1-1.
During the regular season, the Knights would go into singles action trailing 1-0 in both meetings before Queens rallied in singles play to complete the series sweep.
But on Saturday, the #2 pair of sophomore
Lucas Foix Sotos (Javea, Spain) and senior
Cameron Henricy (Las Palmas, Spain) had other ideas against Nathan Yacar and Don Vinz Lominoque. With the Queens duo trailing 2-0 in the early going, they would battle back to tie the match at 3-3 before both sides traded points.
With the Knights trailing 5-6, Queens would force the tiebreaker to determine who would go into singles play with an advantage.
The Spartans duo took an early 3-1 advantage before the Knights answered back with four straight points to take a 5-3 advantage. But as the Spartans cut the advantage down to 5-4, both traded a point before the Knights earned the tiebreaker battle to the final score of 7-6
(7-5) to put the Knights up 1-0 heading into singles play.
Singles
Behind Foix Sotos's #4 singles victory, Queens would take a 2-0 lead as the sophomore defeated Sramek in straight sets to the score of 6-4, 6-3.
But the Spartans would cut the Knights advantage down to 2-1 as rookie Andersson fell at #3 singles in straight sets to the score of 4-6, 3-6 against Newman.
But the senior El Shehawey would give Queens a 3-1 advantage as he knocked off Lennart Lehmann to the score of 6-2, 6-3 at #5 singles.
With three singles matches left and the Spartans having won the first set at #1, #2, and #6 singles, Queens would need to mount a comeback to clinch the match.
Just as Rikkonen forced the third set at #1 singles against Vinz Loominoque, Henricy at #2 singles would force the third set against Truffelli and freshman
Noah Gauthier (La Colle-sur-Loup, France) earned the second set victory over Ronnberg.
Rikkonen who has put together quite a resume in his final year in Flushing beginning with becoming the first Knight to become an ITA East Regional Champion before he was awarded ECC Player of the Year early this week, the Knights' repeat title victory would come at his court.
In the first set, it would be all Vinz Loominoque who took a 6-3 victory before Rikkonen went back and forth before earning a 7-6
(7-3) second set victory to force the third set.
In the third set, Rikkonen fell behind twice, 1-0, 2-1 before the Finland native put the match to rest with five straight points as the senior clinched the match with a 6-2 third set victory as Queens earned the victory to the final score of 4-1 Saturday evening.
Next Serve
The Knights now await the winner of Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Champion to determine the Automatic bid winner to the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament. The match is set for Saturday (May. 4) evening in Flushing inside the QC Tennis Bubble. First serve is set for 5:30 p.m.
For the latest news on Queens College Athletics, follow the Knights at queensknights.com or via social media on Facebook (Queens College Athletics), Twitter (@QCKnights), Instagram (qcknightsny), qcmtennis (@qcmtennis)
