Posted: Apr 23, 2019
EASTON, MA - The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's tennis team won their program record seventh straight match on Tuesday, besting East Region foe Stonehill College 6-1. Wins at second and third doubles were key in keeping the momentum in favor of the Spartans, who then went on to take five of six singles matches on the day. Junior Enej Hasicevic '20 (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) paired with Paul Voigt '21 (Cologne, Germany) to win their fourteenth match of the season, which also gave Hasicevic 42 doubles wins in his career - good for sole possession of second all time.
Freshmen tandem Marcel Volz '22 (Iffezheim, Germany) and Mitch Harrison (Brisbane, Australia) won at third doubles in a tie break, when Volz unleashed to wicked serves making it nearly impossible for their opponents to return. He would retire from his first singles match for the Skyhawks' only point of the match.
Dutch import Tim Fleerkamp '20 (Waalre, Netherlands) continued his red-hot play, winning his fourth consecutive singles match 6-1, 6-0, and fellow countryman Gijs Offringa '22 (Hollandsche Rading, Netherlands) made it 3-1 for the Spartans by virtue of his third singles win. Offringa played a chess match with his opponent, smartly shaping points to set up massive forehands that went untouched.
Luke Taplin '20 (Auckland, New Zealand) was steady as they come at sixth singles, winning comfortably in straight sets to take the clincher for the Spartans. The junior Kiwi wavered a tad in the second, when his 5-2 lead shrunk to 5-4, but turned on the jets in the tenth game to take the win.
With the match decided, Voigt and Hasicevic closed out the scoring with straight set wins at fourth and fifth singles, respectively.
The win marks the thirteenth of the season for the Spartans, setting yet another program record. They are next in action on Friday, April 26 as they take on conference power New York Institute of Technology in East Coast Conference tournament hosted at the Queens College Tennis Center. First serve is set for 2 PM.
St. Thomas Aquinas 6, Stonehill 1
Doubles
1. Russell White/Juan Riano Rojas (STO) def. Tim Fleerkamp/Luke Taplin (STAC), 6-4
2. Paul Voigt/Enej Hasicevic (STAC) def. Samuel Miller/Aleks Lazowski (STO), 6-3
3. Marcel Volz/Mitch Harrison (STAC) def. Vince Huynh/Joey Conrod (STO), 7-6 (2)
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles
1. Samuel Miller (STO) def. Marcel Volz (STAC), 6-2, 2-1 retired
2. Tim Fleerkamp (STAC) def. Russell White (STO), 6-1, 6-0
3. Gijs Offringa (STAC) def. Vince Huynh (STO), 6-3, 6-1
4. Paul Voigt (STAC) def. Juan Riano Rojas (STO), 7-5, 6-4
5. Enej Hasicevic (STAC) def. Aaron Diamond (STO), 6-1, 6-3
6. Luke Taplin (STAC) def. Manu Ravichandrakumar (STO), 6-2, 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3, 6*, 4, 5
#6 St. Thomas Aquinas - 13-5 Overall (4-1 ECC)
Stonehill - 12-8 Overall (4-4 NE10)