Three-Peat! No. 1 Queens Defeats No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas, 4-1, for Third Straight ECC Men's Tennis Championship Title

Recap courtesy of Navraj Sandhu, Queens College Sports Information FLUSHING, NY – Hosting the East Coast Conference men's tennis championship and looking to complete the three-peat, the nationally-ranked #37 and #1 seed Queens College men's tennis team welcomed #2 St. Thomas Aquinas College Spartans to the QC Indoor Tennis Bubble Saturday afternoon.   Facing off against the Spartans in the ECC title match for the sixth straight season, the Knights fell behind 1-0 as the visitors clinched the doubles points. Needing to rally, the Knights would win the first set in five of the six singles matches before going to win four straight matches with junior Alexis Martin-Gibiard (Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France) clinching the championship match at the #4 court as Queens earned a thrilling 4-1 victory to complete their successful title defense.   With the victory, head coach Somadi Druker and the Knights improve to 17-4 overall on the year. Saturday's championship earns the Knights their seventh title under Druker since the 2017 season and the program's 11th title in ECC Championship history. DOUBLES PLAY The Knights would fall behind in doubles play against the Spartans for the second straight match.   The #1 pair of junior Lucas Foix Sotos (Javea, Spain) and rookie Samuel Linck (Haarlem, Netherlands) fell short against the Spartans duo of Seth Newman and Henry Ronnberg to the score of 2-6.   The visitors clinched the doubles points as the Knights #2 pair of sophomore Tim Andersson (Linkoping, Sweden) and rookie Adam Laur (Boulogne Billancourt, France) fell short against Don Lominoque and Nagamitsu Kuroda to the score of 3-6.   The match at #3 court between sophomore Loup Alleno (Paris, France) and junior Alexis Martin-Gibiard (Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France) against Ondrej Sramek and Erik Victor Tauson went unfinished with the score tied at 5-5. SINGLES PLAY Trailing 1-0, the Knights now needed to win four of the sixth singles matches to successfully defend their crown.   Queens began the rally behind All-ECC honoree Alleno at the #2 court. But as he fell behind 3-1 in the first set against Lorenzo Meschini, the French native rallied back to take a 5-4 lead. But Meschini bounced back to take a 6-5 advantage, however, Alleno would not be outdone as the sophomore forced the first set tiebreaker before using a 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker to earn a 7-3 first set victory. In the second set, Alleno jumped ahead 2-1 and never looked back as he defeated Meschini 6-1 in the second to tie the match at 1-1.   Laur at #6 would Queens up 2-0 as the rookie dispatched Ronnberg in straight sets to the score of 6-3, before battling in a back-and-forth second set. But in the end, it would be the Frenchmen that would ensure his team would take a 2-1 commanding lead in the championship match with a 7-5 second set victory. Down to the final four singles matches and with Queens holding the advantage having dropped just two sets in the singles play, All-ECC honoree and nationally ranked #74 Foix Sotos would put together a classic at the #1 court against ECC Player of the Year and nationally-ranked #72 Newman.   Foix Sotos jumped ahead 3-1 before Newman rallied back to tie the first set at 4-4 but it would be Queens #1 player that would take the first with a 6-4 victory. In the second set, Foix Sotos took a 2-1 and 4-2 lead before the ECC Player of the Year would together another rally to take a 5-4 advantage. With Newman holding the advantage and looking to force the second set, Foix Sotos had other ideas as the Spaniard completed the comeback rally winning the next three points and putting Queens in a commanding 3-1 lead as he defeated Newman 7-5 in the second set.   With three matches left, Andersson at the #3 court won the first set over ECC Rookie of the Year Tauson with a 6-1 first set victory before Tauson forced the third set with a 6-3 second set victory.   At the #4 court, Martin-Gibiard earned a 7-5 first set victory over All-ECC honoree Lominoque, while Linck at the #5 court dropped the first set to the score of 2-6 against All-ECC honoree Sramek before the rookie held off the Spartans second point of the match with a 6-3 second set victory.   Queens now just one set away from a victory and in command at all three courts, Martin-Gibiard would complete the three-peat for the Knights with a 6-4 second set victory over Lominoque as the home side put together a successful title defense to earn the match to the final score of 4-1 Saturday afternoon.
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