Flushing, N.Y. - After gritting out a hard-fought point in doubles play, the Queens College women's tennis team overpowered Roberts Wesleyan in singles play and claimed a 4-0 win on Saturday (Oct. 27) in the East Coast Conference Tournament semifinals at the QC Tennis Center.
The top-seeded Knights advance to the ECC Championship on Sunday (Oct. 28) at noon, where they will meet either second-seeded NYIT or third-seeded District of Columbia.
Queens picked up the doubles point despite a difficult challenge from the fourth-seeded Redhawks. Marisa Ostoja and Louisa Brunetti were victorious in the second tandem by a 6-1 score over Salome Darsalia and Bijisha Shrestha, but the No. 3 doubles team of Anica Knezevic and Laura Ortega Jover picked up a 6-4 win over a game Laura Freeman and Marousia Bosch to give QC the early 1-0 edge. The top-tandem doubles match between QC's Reehan Rashad and Luisa Auffarth and Roberts Wesleyan's Nthabi Mogopodi and Andrea Gallardo went unfinished at 4-4.
The Knights kicked the match into high-gear in singles play, with Ruth Artaza Martin claiming the team's second point of the match in a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Darsalia at sixth-singles. Ostoja then took care of Bosch (6-1, 6-0) at third-singles to put Queens on the brink of the program's seventh consecutive conference final. Auffarth would provide the winning point at the No. 2 flight of singles play, besting Gallardo by a 6-1, 6-1 score.
Provided by the Queens Sports Information Department.
