FLUSHING, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's tennis team suffered a 9-0 defeat today at the hands of Queens College in both teams' opening match of the East Coast Conference season held indoors at the QC Tennis Center.

With the loss, Daemen falls to 2-12 overall this season.  Queens, picked second in the ECC preseason poll, improves to 8-2 overall while securing their sixth-straight victory.  The Knights' recent tear has now included three shutouts and three 8-1 victories.  Queens also improved to 3-0 in the all-time series with Daemen, and today's result marked their first-ever shutout in the series.

Returning second-team All-ECC performers Sharvill Nawghre (Nagpur, India) and Ryan Frankel (Bournemouth, England) paced the Knights today.  Nawghre teamed with newcomer Roman Laga (Baiersbronn, Germany) to win 8-2 in first doubles over DC's top duo of John LeMar (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda and Mark Veitengruber (Rockford, Mich./Rockford).  Frankel was paired with newcomer Camilo Arias (Manizales, Colombia) and they took out the Wildcats' David Gonzalez Villegas (Pereira, Colombia/Liceo Frances de Pereira) and Andrew LeMar (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda) 8-3 in third doubles.  QC's Lucas Martinez (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Gabriel Mendez (Pachuca, Mexico) were 8-2 winners in second doubles to complete the doubles sweep.

Nawghre, Frankel, Mendez, Laga and Arias all picked up singles victories as well.  Laga's win in fourth singles over Gonzalez Villegas kept him perfect (10-0) in singles play so far this season.

Another second-team All-ECC pick from last season, Federico Toscano (Buenos Aires, Argentina), won 6-0, 6-3 against John LeMar in sixth singles to account for the final score.

Despite the setback, a positive sign for the Wildcats was the return of Gonzalez Villegas.  The South American freshman was impressive in the fall season before suffering an injury which kept him out of action until today.

Daemen remains in league play when they visit Saint Thomas Aquinas College tomorrow, April 2 for a 3 p.m. match at the Washington Township Tennis and Fitness Club.  The Wildcats will look to pick up their first ECC victory, and get off the proverbial schneid against a Spartan team that scored a tight 5-4 win in the teams' lone meeting last season.