FLUSHING, NY – Day 3 of the Oracle/ITA East Region tennis tournament ended with yet more success for the St. Thomas Aquinas College Spartans. Sophomore Odysseas Papaioannou ’22 (Thessaloniki, Greece) and junior Roberto Chong ‘21 (Puigpunyent, Spain) won their quarterfinal matchup against a duo from Franklin Pierce 8-1 to advance to the semifinals, where they faced off against the top pairing from Concordia. Unfortunately for the Spartan tandem, their magical run came to an end as Concordia was too much to handle.
In singles action, number seven seed Marcel Volz ’22 (Iffezheim, Germany) dispatched his Round of 16 opponent 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals, where he ran into a red hot Willem Van Biezen of Southern New Hampshire. Volz dropped his first set 6-1 before making the match interesting in the second, forcing a tie break before ultimately bowing out 7-6 (5). Number eight seed Chong would also play in the round of sixteen, dropping his match 6-2, 6-4 to number thirteen seed Tobias Lentz of Concordia.
On the court adjacent to Chong, Papaioannou would square off against number three overall seed Kareem Rashad of Queens College. The cat-like Greek would showcase impeccable control of his backhand as he won 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals to face off against Lentz in a highly anticipated matchup. Down a game for most of the first set, Papaioannou forced a break to take the advantage, winning 7-5. In the second set, Lentz would again see himself up a game before Papioannou would regain his footing to win the match 7-5, 6-3.
Papaioannou will face off in the semifinals against Bas Van Biezen of Southern New Hampshire University, who upset number one overall seed Michele Fenoaltea of Concordia via two set tie breaks and a super tie break.
The remaining women’s singles players saw their weekend come to a close on Day 3 as well. Freshman Eliza Mulder ’23 (Schoonhoven, Netherlands) lost her Round of 16 match to number four overall seed Simone Parn of the University of the District of Columbia, 6-1, 7-5, and Cassandra Rohr ’21 (Mallorca, Spain) lost 6-0, 6-3 to Ebba Rosberg of Concordia College.
Monday’s Day 4 matches begin with men’s and women’s doubles championships at 9 AM, with singles semifinals to follow at approximately 11:30 AM.