Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Home of the Firebirds
Freshman Alexis Baguelin won his No. 3 doubles and No. 2 singles matches.
Freshman Alexis Baguelin won his No. 3 doubles and No. 2 singles matches.
Posted: Mar 20, 2015

Firebirds Men’s Tennis Edged by Edinboro, 5-4

Box Score

ERIE, PA – In a battle pitting the No. 8 ranked team in the East Region, University of the District of Columbia, vs. the No. 6 ranked team in the Atlantic Region, Edinboro University of PA, a somewhat depleted Firebirds squad fell by a score of 5-4 on Friday night at Westwood Racquet Club.

 

With UDC's regular No. 1 singles player (No. 20 ranked individually in the East Region) Simon Andersson out due to injury, head coach Dickie Mahaffey was forced to shift around his lineup. The Firebirds still very nearly pulled off the victory with two doubles wins and two singles wins, but a 3rd singles wins was just barely out of reach.

 

Sophomore Drew Stewart (Business Management – Fort Washington, MD/National Christian Academy) saw his first dual meet action of the season pairing with freshman Ander Murillo (Business Management – Mondragon, Spain/Arizmedi Ikastola) at No. 1 doubles and later playing at No. 6 singles. Stewart and Murillo were defeated by Vitor Albanese and Brandon Romain, 8-2 for the first match point.

 

The Firebirds responded, however, by earning the next two doubles points in the No. 2 and 3 matches. First, freshmen Alexis Baguelin (Business Management – Le Houlme, France/Lycee Rey) and Diego Pinto (Electrical Engineering – Santa Cruz, Bolivia/Franco Bolivia) teamed up for an 8-5 win at No. 3, and then freshmen Rok Bozic (Psychology – Ljubljana, Slovenia/Srednja Ekonomska Sola Roska) and Marco Feligioni (Architecture – Citta di Castello, Italy/Liceo Scientifico Citta di Piero) grinded out a thrilling, 9-8 victory after five tiebreakers at No. 2. UDC led 2-1 heading into singles play.

 

The Fighting Scots would rattle off the first three singles victories at 1, 3 and 6 to take a 4-2 lead with three singles matches remaining to decide the match. Baguelin earned a strong comeback win, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 over Bruno Borja at No. 2 to pull the Firebirds within one, 4-3, but the match would be decided after Feligioni lost a tough match to Daniel Gailmany, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

 

Pinto still went on to earn a hard-fought, 6-4, 5-7, 10-5 victory over Juan Estepa at No. 4 singles, but the final match score favored Edinboro.

 

The Fighting Scots improved to 6-5 overall with the win. UDC, which has played one Division I school and three regionally ranked Division II opponents, fell to 3-4 with the loss.

 

The Firebirds will now head up north to Williamsville, NY to open East Coast Conference play Saturday against Daemen at 12:30 p.m.