Central Islip, N.Y. - The brackets are set for the East Coast Conference Men's Tennis Championship which will take place on Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30. The tournament will be held on the campus of Queens College.
Tournament action begins at 11:00 a.m. on Friday when top seed and ECC Regular Season Champion, NYIT, takes on No. 4 seed, St. Thomas Aquins. NYIT, currently ranked No. 34 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division II poll, finished the regular season with a perfect ECC record (5-0, 16-3 overall) for the third straight season. The three-time defending ECC Champions have now won 19 straight ECC matches.
After missing the ECC Championship last season, St. Thomas Aquinas returns to the tournament field for the third time in the last four seasons. The Spartans finished the regular season with a 9-9 overall record and a 2-3 mark in ECC play. NYIT won the previous meeting in the two schools' regular season finale by a score of 8-1 on April 23.
The other semifinal matchup is a familiar matchup featuring the No. 3 seed University of the District of Columbia going up against No. 2 Queens College. This is the third straight year that the two rivals will meet in the ECC Championship semifinals. Queens College came away victorious in the previous two semifinals matchups. Queens also took this year's regular season meeting by a tally of 7-2 on April 9. The Firebirds come into the Championship with a 3-2 ECC mark and a 5-8 overall record, while Queens finished with a 4-1 ECC record and an 11-6 overall mark.
The winners of the semifinals will advance to the championship match on Saturday at 12 noon. For more details, check back to www.eccsports.org throughout the week where a tournament page will be available with stats and recaps from all the tournament matches.
2016 ECC Men's Tennis Championship at Queens College
Semifinals - Friday, April 29
No. 4 St. Thomas Aquinas vs. No. 1 NYIT - 11:00 a.m.
No. 3 Dist. Columbia vs. No. 2 Queens - 2:00 p.m.
Final - Saturday, April 30
STAC/NYIT vs. UDC/QC - 12:00 p.m.
