WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. - In their second East Coast Conference men's tennis match in as many days, Daemen narrowly missed pulling off what could have been considered one of the biggest wins in the nine-year history of the program today as they suffered a grueling 4-3 defeat to St. Thomas Aquinas at the Williamsville South High School courts.
STAC managed to overcome a 2-0 deficit today to remain unbeaten (9-0) in the all-time series with Daemen. The Spartans improved to 5-3 overall while evening their ECC record at 3-3.
It was Daemen's third one-point defeat in the series which dates back to the 2013-14 season. The Wildcats had dropped previous matches this season to STAC by 7-0 and 5-2 finals. Daemen closed the regular season at 1-8 overall and 0-6 in conference.
With STAC fielding just a five-man roster, Daemen won by default in third doubles, giving the Wildcats an opportunity to clinch the doubles point by winning just one of the two remaning matches. That's exactly what transpired as sophomore
Phillip Vance (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and senior
Jose Williamson III (Minneapolis, Minn.) earned a 6-3 win over STAC's Lennart Lehmann and Enaj Hasicevic in second doubles. The Vance-Williamson win avenged their 6-3 loss to the same STAC duo in yesterday's match.
STAC's Kas Roosch and Ivan Laiz outlasted sophomore
Ben Davis (Rochester, N.Y.) and
Sam Greco (Amherst, N.Y.) in first doubles, winning 7-6 to avoid the Wildcat sweep.
Daemen extended their lead to 2-0 with defaulted win granted to
Marcos Lerma Escobar (Zaragoza, Spain) in sixth singles. But the Spartans responded with four straight singles wins to extinguish the Wildcat momentum and seal the overall dual match victory. Lehmann, who suffered his first singles loss of the season yesterday, rebounded in the second position today with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Vance. Laiz got the better of Greco in fourth singles (6-3, 6-2) for the second straight day, and that was followed by Alvaro Barranco's 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Williamson III in third singles. Hasicevic clinched the Spartan win with a 6-4, 6-2 victory in fifth singles over Daemen's
Ross Belen (Marlboro, N.Y.).
Daemen managed to close the gap and provide the final margin when Davis won a three-set affair (6-4, 2-6, 1-0) in the number one position over Roosch. Davis has now won three straight singles matches, improving his personal record to 4-5 this season - all in the top position in Daemen's lineup. After defeating Lehmann yesterday, Davis handed Roosch (5-3) just his third singles setback this season.
Today's match was the final home contest in the career of Williamson III who was recognized in a brief pre-match ceremony. His doubles win today was the 30th of his career making him just the seventh player in program history to reach that total. He also has 46 career wins overall (combined singles/doubles), moving into sole possession of seventh place on Daemen's all-time wins list.
Looking ahead, Daemen will make its first-ever appearance in the ECC Championship this weekend. These same two teams will battle Friday (Apr. 30) - Daemen as the No. 3 seed, STAC as the No. 2 seed - at the Queens College Tennis Center beginning at 3 p.m. The winner advances to the final round of the conference tournament Saturday where top-seeded Queens awaits.
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