AMHERST, N.Y. -- The Daemen University men's tennis team resumes East Coast Conference play on Saturday, April 6 as they travel to the nation's capital to play at the University of the District of Columbia in a 1 PM match.
Daemen comes into their second ECC match of the year with a 5-9 overall record and 0-1 record in conference play. After going on a 3-1 run in the middle of March with non-conference wins over Millennia Atlantic, Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and Saint Vincent, the Wildcats dropped their first ECC match of the season, falling 0-7 to UDC on March 23 at home. Daemen fell on Friday, March 29 against Le Moyne, 1-6, in a non-league match, and comes into Saturday's rematch against the Firebirds on a two-match skid. Graduate student
Zachary Laplante (Ottawa, Ont.) leads the Wildcats with seven singles victories on the year and was the only Daemen player to pick up a win against Le Moyne last weekend. Sophomore
Juan Alvarez (Puebla, Mexico) and freshman
Lasse Mergens (Bochum, Germany) each have six singles wins this season. After joining the team in December, freshman
Lucas Garcia (Bogota, Columbia) has gone 4-5 in singles play, winning three No. 4 singles victories and earning one win at No. 2 singles. Sophomore
Alex Lumanog (Albuquerque, N.M.) is 4-8 in No. 1 singles play, and leads the team alongside Alvarez with five doubles victories on the year in No. 1 doubles. Sophomore
Rohan Chitanand (Den Haag, Netherlands) and Mergens have combined for four doubles victories this season.
Voted to finish third in the ECC Preseason Coaches Poll, the UDC Firebirds have compiled an 8-6 record on the year and are 2-2 in ECC matches this season, picking up wins over Daemen (7-0) and Queens (4-3). Putting together a solid spring season, the Firebirds are riding a three-match win streak coming into this weekend, and have only dropped four matches this spring, going 5-3 in the month of March. UDC has beaten Daemen in each of the last five matches. Four Firebirds have earned ECC Player of the Week honors this season, with graduate student Louis Mangeon picking up the honors twice this year, senior Antonio Simo Durall earning it last week and sophomore Louka Queguiner being named the ECC Player of the Week on Monday after going 4-0 in a 2-0 week for UDC while not allowing a single point in doubles over two matches. Daemen has just one win over the Firebirds all-time, on April 7, 2019 with a 6-1 victory in Washington, D.C. The Firebirds are 10-1 over the Wildcats in the history of the series.
Daemen will host Queens next Saturday (April 13) in a 6:30 PM match at the Miller Tennis Center.
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.
Follow the Daemen men's tennis program on Twitter and Facebook at @DaemenTennis.
