AMHERST, N.Y. -- For the fourth consecutive season, the Daemen University men's tennis team advanced to play in the East Coast Conference Championships. Entering as the No. 4 seed in the tournament, the Wildcats will face No. 1 Queens College on Friday at 8:45 AM in Flushing, N.Y. at the Queens Tennis Center. The Wildcats come into the postseason with a 5-14 overall record and 0-6 record in ECC matches on the year, while Queens comes in at 12-6 overall and 5-1 in the ECC regular season to earn the ECC regular season title.
The Wildcats are led by graduate student Zachary LaPlante (Ottawa, Ont.) who has posted a team-high seven singles victories this season. Junior
Juan Alvarez (Puebla, Mexico) and freshman
Lasse Mergens (Bochum, Germany) have made an immediate impact on the team in their first season at Daemen, with each totaling six singles wins. Alvarez has earned four victories at No. 2 singles and two wins at No. 3 singles, while three of Mergens' singles wins have come from the No. 5 spot and two from No. 4 singles play. Sophomores
Alex Lumanog (Albuquerque, N.M.) and
Rohan Chitanand (Den Haag, Netherlands) each have four singles wins this season. Alvarez and Lumanog have been successful at No. 1 doubles this year, totaling a team-high five doubles wins. Chitanand and Mergens have four wins at No. 2 doubles on the season.
As the defending ECC champions, Queens came into the 2024 season tied with St. Thomas Aquinas for first in the ECC Preseason Poll. The Knights come into Saturday's match with a 12-6 overall record and 5-1 record in ECC matches, dropping their only conference match thus far to UDC, 3-4, on March 29. Queens is riding a six-match win streak, on which they beat nationally-ranked Adelphi in a huge 4-3 victory last week. Senior Roni Rikkonen was named the ECC Player of the Week in the final weekly sport report of the regular season after going 2-0 at No. 1 singles play over the week, while freshman Tim Andersson was named the ECC Co-Rookie of the Week after going 2-1 in singles and 2-0 in doubles play. Five Knights have double-digit singles wins this season, with Rikkonen leading the way with 17 victories at No. 1 singles play, and junior Cameron Henricy, sophomore Lucas Foix Sotos and senior Omar El Shehawey each posting 15 singles victories this season. A perennial powerhouse, the Knights have appeared in each of the last nine conference finals, winning five titles over the last six tournaments and nine total ECC Championships in program history.
Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
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