SPARKILL, NY – Playing at the friendly confines of "The Dome" for the last time this season, the St. Thomas Aquinas men's tennis team shut out Rockland Community College by a final score of 9-0. The win marked the tenth of the season – the most wins in a season in the history of the program while also snapping a five game skid.
Starting off the scoring was the doubles pairing of Chris Jonas '16 (Yorktown Heights, NY) and Gilberto Lantigua '18 (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain), who won their first doubles match of the season as partners with an 8-0 victory. Quickly following with another win, Andreu Ferragut '18 (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) and Roger Almato '19 (Vic, Spain) won at second doubles with a duplicate 8-0 score.
Picking up the Spartans' third point of the day were Aaron Stahl '18 (Dusseldorf, Germany) and Javier Munoz '17 (Sevilla, Spain). The number one doubles pairing would have to earn every point, as they faced one of the top NJCAA doubles teams in the nation. With the match headed into a tiebreaker, Stahl and Munoz were down 4-0 before they rattled off seven straight points for the win.
Ferragut continued his stellar singles play and picked up his record-tying eleventh straight singles victory. The scintillating Spaniard dominated from baseline to baseline, and picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win to go with his 8-0 doubles win. He was the only Spartan to have shut-out day.
At sixth singles, Jonas picked up the Spartans deciding point with a 6-1, 6-2 mark. Lantigua earned his first singles win of the year at the number four spot, 6-0, 6-1, to go with his first doubles victory of the season.
Winning at fifth singles was Almato, who took an 8-1 pro-set win. Stahl got back on the winning track with a 6-1, 6-3 score at number one. The stalwart sophomore sniper now has 13 singles wins on the year, and has 29 and counting in two years at STAC.
The closest singles match of the day was at the second spot, as Munoz won with identical scores in the tie break in both sets, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5).
The Spartans finish the year with a 6-1 home record, clinched a fourth seed in the ECC tournament, and will face regular season champion and NCAA #34 NYIT at host site Queens College on Friday, April 29. First serve is set for 11:00 AM, rain or shine.
STAC 9, RCC 0
Singles
1. Aaron Stahl (STAC) def. Jonathan Compass (RCC) – 6-1, 6-3
2. Javier Munoz (STAC) def. Lysander Almante (RCC) – 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5)
3. Andreu Ferragut (STAC) def. Jervaha Marshall (RCC) – 6-0, 6-0
4. Gilberto Lantigua (STAC) def. Yash Baghat (RCC) – 6-0, 6-1
5. Roger Almato (STAC) def. Warren Brown (RCC) – 8-1
6. Chris Jonas (STAC) def. Jacob Rosenfeld (RCC) – 6-1, 6-2
Doubles
1. Stahl/Munoz (STAC) def. Compass/Almante (RCC) – 9-8 (4)
2. Ferragut/Almato (STAC) def. Marshall/Brown (RCC) – 8-0
3. Lantigua/Jonas (STAC) def. Baghat/Rosenfeld (RCC) – 8-0
Order of Finish: Doubles (3, 2, 1) Singles (3, 4, 6, 5, 1, 2)