Sparkill, N.Y. – The St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Tennis team will make its fourth straight appearance in East Coast Conference Championship Tournament Final. First-year Head Coach Dan Rockhill and his top-seeded Spartans are set to take on the Co-Regular Season Champs, Queens College on Friday morning.
When and Where: Friday, April 22 at 12:45 p.m. from the Queens College Tennis Center in Flushing, New York. Fans can watch the match LIVE on the ECC Network.
Postseason History: St. Thomas Aquinas has had recent success in the ECC tournament, having won the program's first-ever championship in 2022, defeating the aforementioned Queens Knights by the score of 4 to 3.
Season Series: During the 2022 Regular Season, the Spartans and Knights split their 2-match series, with each side winning on the other's home court. March 24 @ Flushing, N.Y. (STAC 4/Queens 2) and April 2 @ Sparkill, N.Y. (Queens 4/STAC 3)
Regional & National Rankings: St. Thomas Aquinas currently holds the #3 position in this week's NCAA Division II East Region Poll, along with the #43 spot in the latest ITA Division II National Poll. Meanwhile, Queens sits atop the East Region rankings and is #40 in ITA Division II.
Leading the Way: STAC earned a share of the top-seed in the tournament and the regular season crown after finishing with a 17-1 overall record and a 5-1 ECC mark. The Spartans will lean on Tony Khamassi, Ivan Laiz, Lennart Lehmann, Odysseas Papaioannou and Ludovico Truffelli to bring their experiences of playing in last year's men's tennis final to this year's title match. East Coast Conference Rookie of the Year Ondrej Sramek, along with All-Conference member Tobias Fuerschuss lead the newest members of the maroon and gold into the championship battle against the Knights, including teammates Alberto Espinosa Navarro and Don Vinz Lominoque.
Format Change for 2023 ECC Men's Tennis Tournament: Due to extenuating circumstances, the championship, which was originally scheduled to take place over two days, will now be a single-day event on Friday, April 21. Instead of the traditional semifinal format, Friday's action will see Daemen take on District of Columbia in a consolation match, followed by Queens and St. Thomas Aquinas, who were ECC Regular Season Co-Champions, meeting for the ECC title.
2023 ECC Men's Tennis Championship Central