AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's tennis team looks to clinch their first-ever East Coast Conference tournament berth this weekend, but they'll need to go through two of the top three teams in the league to do so. The Wildcats wrap up the conference portion of their 2018-19 regular season by hosting Queens College (Friday, April 12) and Saint Thomas Aquinas College (Saturday, April 13) this weekend. Both matches are slated for 7:30 p.m. starts at Miller Tennis Center. 

Daemen (5-12, 1-2 ECC) has won four of its last six matches, but the Wildcats are coming off a bitter 4-3 loss at rival Roberts Wesleyan College earlier this week. The Wildcats held a 3-2 lead, but ultimately dropped the decision after more than five hours of battling. The results of that match vaulted RWC into a tie for second-place in the ECC standings, while Daemen sits in fifth place. The top four teams in final ECC standings will advance to the conference tournament which is slated for April 26-27 at Queens. 

The Wildcats could clinch a postseason bid with a pair of wins this weekend. A loss to highly-touted Queens would not necessarily eliminate the Wildcats, but they lose control of their destiny. They would need Roberts Wesleyan to defeat STAC on Friday evening, followed by a Daemen win over the Spartans Saturday, plus an NYIT win over District of Columbia. 

Senior Ricardo Ruiz Martinez (Valencia, Spain) has come on of late, winning four consecutive singles matches, all in the No. 1 position in Daemen's lineup. The reigning ECC Player of the Week has 34 singles wins in his Daemen career, second-best in team history behind only Mark Veitengruber's 49. He shares the team lead with seven singles wins this season. 

Ruiz Martinez has also teamed with classmate David Gonzalez Villegas (Pereira, Colombia) to win four straight doubles matches; both players have 10 doubles wins this season. Ruiz Martinez is one of three players to have 10 or more doubles wins in two separate seasons; Gonzalez Villegas is the only player in team history to do so three times. Ruiz Martinez ranks second in team history with 64 combined singles/doubles wins, while Gonzalez Villegas ranks third with 63. 

Junior Fabian Wilde (Crimmitschau, Germany) stands just one wins shy of becoming only the sixth player in team history with 60 combined singles/doubles wins. He recently became just the fourth player in team history with 30 singles victories, and he shares the team lead with seven singles wins this season. 

Freshman Patrick O'Brien (Pittsford, N.Y.) has made an immediate impact since returning to the lineup in late March. O'Brien missed the first nine matches of the spring season while rehabbing an injury. He's posted a 5-1 singles record since returning, and shares the team lead with seven singles wins this season. 

Queens will roll into Miller Tennis Center with an 8-7 overall record and an unblemished 3-0 mark in ECC play this season. The Knights are the two-time defending ECC champions, and they've made 17 consecutive NCAA tournament berths. They were picked first in the ECC preseason poll released in January, but they'll be looking to snap a two-match slide after suffering recent defeats to Division I Hofstra (4-0) and perennial East Region powerhouse Concordia (4-2). 

The Knights return seven players from their 2017-18 team that advanced to the NCAA tournament's Round of 16 for a second straight year. All-conference honorees Cosme Jubera and Richard Sec, as well as the reigning ECC Rookie of the Year, Hugo Evangelista de Andrade, headline the team's returners. Queens is ranked No. 2 in the Oracle/ITA East Region poll, making them the 10th regionally-ranked opponent Daemen will have faced this season. The Knights have won 21 of their last 24 ECC regular-season matches dating back to the 2015 season. 

Saturday's match comes against a St. Thomas Aquinas team that has made three consecutive ECC Championship berths. The Spartans will enter the weekend with an 8-5 overall record and a 2-1 ECC mark. They rebounded from a three-match slide with a 5-2 upset victory over NYIT on April 6, and added an impressive 4-3 win over regionally-ranked Le Moyne on April 10. The Spartans are ranked ninth in the Oracle/ITA East Region poll. 

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