AMHERST, N.Y. -- The Daemen University men's tennis team will travel to Colchester, Vermont to play a non-conference match at St. Michael's at 4 PM on Saturday. This marks the first time that the Wildcats and Purple Knights meet on the court. 

Daemen comes into this weekend with a 3-7 overall record after dropping their home match against St. Lawrence last weekend, 1-6, bringing the Cats to 1-4 in the spring season. Though the No. 1 doubles pairing of senior Alex Lumanog (Albuquerque, N.M.) and junior Lasse Mergens (Bochum, Germany) earned a 6-2 victory, the Saints earned the first point of the match by taking No. 2 and No. 3 doubles with scores of 6-2 and 6-3, respectively. The Saints went on to take five of the six singles matches to win the match 6-1. Daemen senior Rohan Chitanand (Den Haag, Netherlands) was the sole Wildcat winner in singles play, winning No. 3 singles (6-3, 6-4). Mergens at fifth singles (1-6, 6-1, 8-10) and junior Lucas Garcia (Bogota, Columbia) at second singles (6-3, 2-6, 1-6) both battled to three but dropped the deciding third set. 

With an upperclassmen-heavy team that features four players with at least 20 combined singles/doubles wins in Rohan Chitanand (Den Haag, Netherlands), Alex Lumanog (Albuquerque, N.M.), Lasse Mergens (Bochum, Germany) and Lucas Garcia (Bogota, Colombia), Daemen's newcomers have seen the most success in the young season thus far. Sophomore Riley Fitzgerald (Auburn, N.Y.) and freshman Mitch Pollack (Winnipeg, Man.) each have three singles victories this season. Pollack also leads the Wildcats with four doubles wins. 

After posting a 6-10 record in the 2024-25 season, the Purple Knights are 5-4 on the year and 1-1 in the spring competition season. This season, St. Michael's excels at No. 2 singles (6-3 record), No. 4 singles (6-3 record) and No. 5 singles (5-4 record) and have combined a 29-32 record in singles play this year. Garrett Brooker and Simon Lundholm both have six singles wins on the year while Jamie Macpherson (seven wins), Brooker (five wins) and Viktor Boban (five wins) stand out for the Purple Knights in doubles action.

The Wildcats are off next weekend but return to action on Saturday, March 14 on the road as they travel down to the Southern Tier to play at St. Bonaventure.