The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's tennis team is off to a great start to their
2015-16 campaign.  Having just had their best finish in program history at the USTA/ITA Regional Tournament.

September 19-20, 2015 @ USTA/ITA Regionals 

PHILADELPHIA, PA – At the Legacy Tennis Center and Philadelphia University, the Spartans won a program-record five matches at the USTA/ITA Regionals.  The opening day of the tournament was highlighted by "The Spanish Connection" in the Men's 'A' Draw Singles.  Javier Munoz '17 (Sevilla, Spain) defeated #10 seed Jaime Salvador of NYIT 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 1-0 (10-7) in a tough, back-and-forth match that lasted over two hours.  Andreu Ferragut '18 (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) 
defeated #11 seed Sharville Nawghre of Queens College 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (11-9) in a match that Ferragut battle back from being down in the super tie break to win the match.  The two wins in the 'A' Draw were the most ever on the opening day of the USTA/ITA Regionals for the Spartans. 

Aaron Stahl '18 (Dusseldorf, Germany) lost to Xavier Aubron of Southern New Hampshire University 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 0-1 (4-10).  Due to darkness, the match was moved indoors and the break proved beneficial to Aubron, who took advantage of his new surroundings to go on the offensive and win the match.  Aubron, who as ranked as high as #19 in the East Region last year, went on to advance to the third round of the tournament. 

In his first collegiate tennis match, James Bruce '19 (London, England) came out of the gates on fire, using four aces to take the first set easily against Max Ziegler of Caldwell.  Ziegler would regain control of the match, however, and go on to defeat Bruce in the third set super tie break.  The final score of the match was 6-1, 2-6, 0-1 (4-10).  All four matches were decided in the third set super tie break with on-court temperatures reaching nearly 100 degrees. 

Sunday's matches saw more highlights for the Spartans.  In Men's 'B' Draw Singles action, Roger Almato '19 (Vic, Spain) advanced to the third round before bowing out to Andrew LeMar 4-6 in a tough third match.  He defeated Eric Howes of St. Anselm 6-2 and Henry Boyle of Chestnut Hill 6-4 in the first two rounds. Hugo Preussler '19 (Caxias do Sul, Brazil) used powerful forehand winners to defeat Kyle Harris of St. Anselm 6-2 before dropping his second round match to Nick 
Majewski of Merrimack 1-6.

Back in Men's 'A' Draw Singles, a fatigued Munoz and Ferragut fought hard, but were both defeated in their second round matchups.  Munoz lost to Steven Francis of Merrimack 1-6, 5-7 while Ferragut dropped his match to Rares Ispas of NYIT 2-6, 4-6.