Sparkill, N.Y. - The St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Tennis team earned its 12th straight victory on Friday afternoon, downing the University of the District of Columbia, 6-1 at the Riley Family Tennis Courts.
STAC improves to 12-0 overall and 2-0 in ECC action, while UDC drops to 4-10 and 1-3.
STAC began the afternoon, taking two of three doubles matches to earn the team point. No. 3 Ondrej Sramek and Tony Khamassi took down Jake Bedforth & Oskar Karos, 6-1, before No. 2 Tobias Fuerschuss and Don Vinz Lominoque dispatched Juan Estevez Hernandez & Antonio Simo Durall, 6-2. The top duo of Louis Mangeon & Mauricio Corty took a 6-3 decision over Ludovico Truffelli & Odysseas Papaioannou to avoid a sweep.
The host Spartans carried that momentum into singles action, as STAC picked up three consecutive victories to take the team win. First, Ondrej Sramek would win 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3, followed by Lennart Lehmann earning a hard-fought 6-0, 6-3 victory at No. 2 to make it 3-0. STAC would take the match with a 6-1, 6-0 victory by Alberto Espinosa Navarro at the No. 6 position. St. Thomas Aquinas would also pick up victories at No. 5 (Ivan Laiz - 6-0, 6-1) and No. 4 (Don Vinz Lominoque - 5-7, 6-4, 6-4), with their shutout broken by the Firebirds in the No. 1 slot.
Don Vinz Lominoque and Ondrej Sramek both went 2-0 on the day, winning their doubles and singles matches.
STAC 6/DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 1 - OFFICIAL RESULTS
DOUBLES
Order of Finish: 3, 2*, 1
SINGLES
5.
Ivan Laiz (STAC) def. Oskar Karos (UDC) 6-0, 6-1
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 6*, 1, 5, 4
UDC Record: 4-10, 1-3 ECC
STAC Record: 12-0, 2-0 ECC
THE ROCKHILL REPORT
"This was a good win today for the guys as UDC played hard at all positions", remarked Coach Dan Rockhill. "I was happy for both Lenny and Ondrej. They brought energy and approached their matches correctly. These two never take any opponent likely and seek to improve each time they play."
"The coaching staff collectively felt that we were a little casual with our warmup and that led to a slow start on some courts. We were not able to overcome this at the first doubles position unfortunately. This is something on which we still need to work."
"To be our best version, we will need to give our 100% each day from this point until the end of the season", stated Rockhill. "Energy and effort should be a given and not something a coach wants to spend time coaching. If we can get our entire team playing well at the same time, we will be difficult to beat."
"Ondrej was today's Most Impactful Player. His two wins led the way. He is going to be special at STAC."
UP NEXT
Note: Due to Saturday's forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms in the New York City Metropolitan Area, both the men's and women's tennis matches with Division I St. Francis College - Brooklyn have been cancelled and will not be made up.
STAC will next be in action on Sunday, April 2 against Daemen University at the Riley Family Tennis Courts. The Spartans and Wildcats will play a tennis twin bill, with the first set of matches getting underway at 10:00 a.m.
