FLUSHING, N.Y. – Rising to the moment on their home courts, the No. 29 Queens College men's tennis team rallied from an early deficit to successfully defend its East Coast Conference title with a thrilling 4-1 victory over No. 50 St. Thomas Aquinas College Saturday evening inside the QC Indoor Tennis Bubble.
After dropping the doubles point, the Knights responded with four straight singles wins, highlighted by All-ECC honoree junior
Tim Andersson (Linkoping, Sweden), who delivered the clinching point at No. 3 singles to secure Queens' fourth consecutive ECC championship.
With the win, Queens improves to a program-record 21-2 overall. Head coach
Somadi Druker and the Knights capture their 12th ECC title in program history, their eighth since 2017 under Druker.
Doubles Play
Queens struck first at No. 3 doubles, where the duo of Andersson and sophomore
Samuel Linck (Haarlem, Netherlands) earned a 6-2 victory over Ondrej Sramek and Nathan Yacar.
St. Thomas Aquinas responded at No. 2 doubles, as junior
Said Akbarov (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and sophomore
Adam Laur (Boulogne Billancourt, France) fell 6-4 to Nagamitsu Kuroda and Don Vinz Lominoque.
The doubles point came down to a tightly contested No. 1 match, where seniors
Lucas Foix Sotos (Javea, Spain) and
Alexis Martin-Gibiard (Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France) battled to a tiebreak but ultimately fell 7-6
(7-4) to Theo Renoux and Henry Ronnberg, giving the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
Singles Play
Facing a deficit, ECC Player of the Year Foix Sotos set the tone in singles with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Lorenzo Meschini at No. 1 to even the match.
Linck followed at No. 5 with a strong 6-4, 6-0 win over Sramek, putting Queens ahead 2-1. Laur extended the lead to 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Renoux at No. 2.
At No. 6, sophomore
Ismoil Khayriddinov (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) took the opening set in dominant fashion before his match was pushed to a deciding third set against Kuroda, while at No. 4, All-ECC honoree Martin-Gibiard rallied from a first-set deficit to even his match and force a third set.
With multiple matches still in the balance, all eyes turned to No. 3 singles, where Andersson battled past Lominoque. After taking a tightly contested opening set 7-5, the junior closed out the match with a 6-4 second-set victory to clinch the championship and seal Queens' fourth straight ECC title.
NEXT UP
Ranked No. 1 in the East Region, the Knights will await the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship selection announcement on Monday, May 4. More details to follow soon.
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