Men's Tennis Hosts Bloomsburg, UDC This Weekend

3/28/2025 9:35:00 AM

By: CONTACT: Mary Margaret Johnson, Director of Athletics Communications | mmjohnso@daemen.edu

WEEKEND MATCH UPS
The Daemen University men's tennis team will play a pair of matches this weekend at the Miller Tennis Center in Williamsville, N.Y., first hosting the Bloomsburg Huskies in a non-conference match up on Friday at 8 PM before resuming East Coast Conference play by hosting the UDC Firebirds on Saturday at 6:30 PM. Daemen is 2-6 and 0-2 in ECC action in the spring season and has a 4-11 record overall. Bloomsburg is 4-1 on the year, and UDC is 5-5 overall and 1-1 in ECC play.

SPARRING WITH THE SPARTANS
Daemen opened ECC play last weekend and fell to St. Thomas Aquinas 0-7 in both match ups. In Saturday's match, the Wildcats dropped all seven matches to the Spartans in their ECC opener. STAC picked up all three doubles victories to win the first point of the match, and earned all six singles points as well. Back in the lineup at top singles for the Wildcats was senior Juan Alvarez (Puebla, Mexico), who put up a fight against the Spartans' top player in Seth Newman before falling, 6-4, 6-2. After being named the ECC Player of the Week for the first time in his career, both sophomore Lucas Garcia (Bogota, Columbia) and junior Rohan Chitanand (Den Haag, Netherlands) both played their singles matches to 6-3, 6-3 results, with Garcia at No. 3 and Chitanand at No. 4 singles. The Spartans went on to top Daemen, 7-0, in Sunday's match after winning all three doubles pairings and taking the five singles matches that Daemen played in as well as No. 6 singles which was a win by default for STAC. Garcia played at second singles today and forced Lominoque to win by two in the first set, 7-5, before falling 6-2 in the second set. Chitanand played Tauson well in No. 3 singles, but the STAC freshman was able to pull out the 6-2, 6-2 win over the Daemen junior.

PRESEASON POLL
The Wildcats were selected fourth in the 2025 East Coast Conference Preseason Coaches Poll, as voted on by the league's four coaches. Daemen has finished fourth in the ECC in each of the three seasons under head coach Richard Greco, Jr. Defending conference champions Queens College (14 points, 2 first place votes) topped the poll alongside St. Thomas Aquinas College (14 points, 2 first place votes) with both teams tied for first place. The University of the District of Columbia (8 points) is third in the poll, followed by Daemen (4 points). Daemen went 5-15 on the year in the 2023-24 season and 0-6 in ECC play a season ago.

A LOOK AT THE TEAM
The Wildcats return six players from the 2023-24 team along with the addition of freshman Vondin Henderson (Tonawanda, N.Y.) who participated in the fall slate. Daemen went 2-5 in the fall portion of the season. Senior Juan Alvarez (Puebla, Mexico) and junior Rohan Chitanand (Den Haag, Netherlands) led the Wildcats with four singles victories a piece in the fall, with Alvarez going 2-2 in No. 1 singles and 2-0 in No. 2 singles and Chitanand compiling all four wins at No. 5 singles. In doubles action in the fall, the No. 3 pairing of Chitanand and senior Jayven Williamson (Minneapolis, Minn.) led the Cats with four doubles wins while the second doubles duo of sophomores Lasse Mergens (Bochum, Germany) and Lucas Garcia (Bogota, Columbia) finished with a 3-1 record in No. 2 doubles play.

UP NEXT
Daemen will travel to the nation's capital next weekend where they will face Division III opponent Marymount University on Thursday, April 3 in Arlington, VA and take on UDC in a rematch on Friday, April 4 in Washington, D.C.

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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