FLUSHING, N.Y. – Opening the spring season in cross-divisional play, the Queens College men's tennis team hosted the Hofstra University Pride inside the QC Indoor Tennis Bubble on Friday afternoon.
After dropping a tightly contested doubles point, Queens responded in dominant fashion during singles play, claiming five of six matches to secure a 5-2 victory.
With the win, Queens improves to 4-0 overall on the young season.
DOUBLES PLAY
Queens struck first at No. 1 doubles, where the pairing of senior
Alexis Martin-Gibiard (Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France) and sophomore
Adam Laur (Boulogne Billancourt, France) earned a convincing 6-2 victory over Amir Albeg and Samarth Deepudass.
Hofstra answered at No. 3 doubles, as the Knights' duo of junior
Tim Andersson (Linkoping, Sweden) and junior
David Cerne (Ljubljana, Slovenia) fell 6-2 to Hideki Matsuoka and Enaut Garcia.
The doubles point came down to the No. 2 court, where senior
Lucas Foix Sotos (Javea, Spain) and sophomore
Samuel Linck (Haarlem, Netherlands) battled in a back-and-forth contest before being edged 7-5 by Alex Di Fruscia and Dominic Anderson, giving the Pride a 1-0 lead.
SINGLES PLAY
Trailing entering singles, Queens quickly shifted the momentum.
Andersson set the tone at No. 3 singles with a decisive 6-1, 6-3 victory over Matsuoka to even the match.
Linck followed at No. 5 singles, delivering a 6-0, 7-6 (7-3) win against Deepudass to give the Knights their first lead of the afternoon.
At the top spot, Foix Sotos prevailed in a tightly contested battle, defeating Di Fruscia 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) to extend the advantage.
Laur clinched the overall match at No. 2 singles, grinding out a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory over Anderson.
Martin-Gibiard added the final point for Queens at No. 4 singles, rallying after a narrow first-set loss to defeat Garcia 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 10-8.
Hofstra earned its lone singles victory at No. 6, where Albeg defeated
Caleb Brightman (Pawling, N.Y.) to the score of 7-5, 7-6
(11-9).
NEXT UP:
The Knights return to action on Monday, March 2, when they welcome the University of Findlay. First serve is scheduled for 1 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)
