SPARKILL, NY – The St. Thomas Aquinas College men’s tennis team closed out their fall portion of the schedule on Friday, sweeping East Region No. 10 Franklin Pierce University 7-0. In a match that was more closely contested than the score would indicate, the Spartans got on the board by sweeping all three doubles matches. Odysseas Papaioannou ’22 (Thessaloniki, Greece) and Roberto Chong ’21 (Puigpunyent, Spain) got back to their winning ways, taking a hotly-contested 7-6 (5) tiebreak win at first doubles. The Spartans also won with identical 6-2 scores at second and third doubles for the sweep.
Carrying their momentum into singles play, the Spartans would win straight set matches as first, second, and fourth singles, while third, fifth, and sixth singles all required third sets. Marcel Volz ’22 (Iffezheim, Germany) showed machine-like precision at the top spot, winning 6-1, 6-2 to give the home team a 2-0 lead. Papaioannou was next at second singles, as he closed out a 6-3, 6-4 win with a barrage of steady backhands to outlast his opponent. Alvaro Barranco ’21 (Lleida, Spain) made it 3-0 Spartans with a 7-5, 7-5 conquest at fourth singles.
Things appeared to get a little hairy at the other three spots. Chong dropped his first set 6-4 before he found his footing to take down his former doubles partner 6-3, 6-1. Tim Fleerkamp ’20 (Waalres, Netherlands) won in similar fashion, splitting the first two sets before triumphing 10-8 in a super tiebreaker. Paul Voigt ’21 (Cologne, Germany) rounded out the scoring with a 10-5 super tiebreaker win at sixth singles.
The Spartans finish their fall schedule with an unbeaten 3-0 record in dual match play, only the second time in program history they head into the Spring schedule undefeated. They swept their opponents in all three matches, marking the first time ever to achieve that feat.
St. Thomas Aquinas 7, Franklin Pierce 0
October 18, 2019
Doubles
1. Papaioannou/Chong (STAC) def. Barak/Gordon (FPU), 7-5 (5)
2. Volz/Barranco (STAC) def. Patrick/Arnold (FPU), 6-2
3. Voigt/Hasicevic (STAC) def. Ortiz/Cladera (FPU), 6-2
Singles
1. -/11 Marcel Volz (STAC) def. Yuval Barak (FPU), 6-2, 6-1
2. Odysseas Papaioannou (STAC) def. Preston Gordon (FPU), 6-3, 6-4
3. -/12 Roberto Chong (STAC) def. Nkrumah Patrick (FPU), 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
4. Alvaro Barranco (STAC) def. Joel Cladera (FPU), 7-5, 7-5
5. Tim Fleerkamp (STAC) def. Joshua Arnold (FPU), 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (8)
6. Paul Voigt (STAC) def. Paul McLellan (FPU), 7-6 (6), 4-6, 1-0 (5)
-/6 St. Thomas Aquinas – 3-0 (0-0 ECC)
-/10 Franklin Pierce – 3-4 (0-0 NE10)