Strong Singles Play Sends Firebirds to 5-4 Season-Opening Victory over STAC
WASHINGTON, DC – The Firebirds erased a 2-1 deficit at the end of doubles play by winning four of six singles matches to narrowly defeat St. Thomas Aquinas in their spring season and East Coast Confernece opener played indoors at East Potomac Tennis Center on Tuesday afternoon.
The Firebirds improved to 4-0 overall in the 2012-13 season and 1-0 in the ECC. The Spartans fell to 4-7 overall and 0-2 in league play.
Junior Miguel Uzcategui (Electrical Engineering – Valencia, Venezuela/Colegio Sagrado Corazon) earned the fifth and decisive point with a convincing, 6-2, 6-1 No. 3 singles win over Inigo Aldekoa.
Senior Aleksandar Grabovac (Psychology – Ljubljana, Slovenia/Gimnazija Euro Sola Ljubljana) and sophomore Simon Andersson (Business Management – Ystad, Sweden/Sydskanska Gymnasiet) teamed up for District of Columbia's lone doubles win at the No. 1 spot, 8-3 over Antoine Venard and Sanislav Magarchenko. But following Grabovac and Andersson's win, the Firebirds dropped the No. 3 and No. 2 doubles matches in succession, and went into singles play trailing 2-1.
Andersson evened the match as he earned the first singles win of the day at the No. 4 singles spot, 6-2, 6-3 over Venard. Grabovac followed with a 6-1, 6-4 win at the top singles spot over Magarchenko, and then junior Carlos Quiroga (Electrical Engineering – Valencia, Venezuela/Maria Montessori) cruised past Daniel Maysonet, 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 5 spot. The three consecutive singles wins put the Firebirds up 4-2 and one singles win away from victory.
The next match to finish saw junior Ike Kiro (Undecided – Milnerton Ridge, South Africa/Milnerton HS) fall by a 6-2, 6-2 verdict at the No. 2 spot. The Spartans closed to within 4-3 with that win.
With the score 4-3, Uzcategui finished off Aldekoa at the No. 3 spot for the Firebirds' fifth and decisive win. Freshman Simon Bratke (Undecided – Bonn, Germany/Collegium Josephinum Bonn), playing in his first collegiate tennis match, was defeated, 3-6, 6-2, 12-10 in a very hard-fought, No. 6 singles match, but the outcome of the match was already decided.
Next up, District of Columbia will host non-conference foe Merrimack on Sunday, March 17th at 11 a.m.