The men’s tennis team finished its regular season by defeating the Quinnipiac Bobcats 6-1 on Friday, April 18. With the win, the Hawks finished the year with a 15-7 overall record while going 6-1 in MAAC play.
MU began the day by winning two of the three doubles matches to earn the doubles competition point. Junior Victor Pugliese and freshman Christian Vieira earned an 8-4 win at the number one doubles spot to start the match, and the freshmen duo of Przemyslaw Filipek and Bee Kumthonkittikul sealed the doubles competition victory with an 8-1 win of their own at the number three spot. In the two slot, junior Freddy Marcinkowski and sophomore Ramy Bekhiet fell 8-6.
Pugliese continued his solid season at the number one spot in singles play and moved to 6-0 in conference matches, by beating QU’s Kei Ezaka in a tough three set contest: 6-1, 4-6, and 7-6. The win was Pugliese’s 13th straight on the season and moved him to 15-1 overall for the spring.
Filipek was the only Hawk to lose in singles competition for the match as he fell in straight sets at the number two spot with both sets ending 6-4.
The men were able to sweep the rest of singles play, including straight set wins at the number four, five, and six spots from Marcinkowski, freshman Luke Adamus, and Vieira respectively. Marcinkowski won his sets 7-5, 6-2 while Adamus posted 6-3, 6-4 victories. Vieira capped it off with wins of 6-3, 7-5.
Kumthonkittikul had a bit tougher time at the number three spot after losing the first set 6-4, nonetheless, he battled back to take the second and third sets 6-4, 7-6.
Second year head coach Cory Hubbard was very pleased with his teams overall performance on the day. “I was worried our guys would come out flat after a tough loss to Marist,” said Hubbard. “But the team stayed tough and were able to pull through and get the win.”
With the win, MU earned the second seed in the upcoming MAAC Championship tournament. The Hawks first match up in the Championships will be against the third seeded Niagara Purple Eagles who they defeated in a close contest earlier this April. The matchup will take place Saturday, April 26 and is set to begin at 10 am.
“It has been a long stretch of almost 15 matches in about 30 days,” said Hubbard about the end of the season. “We need to recover and get reenergized this week leading up to the MAAC Championships. It will be a very competitive tournament, and we will have to play with more energy than we have all year. It’s so exciting to be in this position to compete for a championship, and we are looking forward to the opportunity.”