Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Home of the Firebirds
Marco Feligioni won his No. 5 singles match and teamed up with Josip Marinic for a No. 3 doubles win.
Marco Feligioni won his No. 5 singles match and teamed up with Josip Marinic for a No. 3 doubles win.
Posted: Sep 22, 2016

UDC Men’s Tennis Narrowly Defeated by USciences, 5-4

Box Score

WASHINGTON, DC – The University of the District of Columbia men's tennis team was narrowly defeated, 5-4 by East Region foe USciences on Thursday afternoon at UDC Tennis Courts.

The Firebirds (0-2) won the No. 1 and 2 doubles matches to take a 2-1 lead heading into singles play, but only managed singles wins at No. 2 by Diego Pinto and No. 5 by Marco Feligioni. The Devils (1-2) won the No. 3 doubles match, and singles matches at No. 4, 6, 3 and 1.

USciences tied the match, 2-2 when Borna Novak defeated UDC's Ander Murillo, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 4, but then Pinto and Feligioni won their matches back-to-back to bring UDC within a point of victory.

Unfortunately for the Firebirds, the Devils rattled off three straight wins to pull out an improbable victory by the narrowest of margins. First, USciences' Chandat Phan defeated UDC's Francis Ngobounan, 6-1, 6-0 at No. 6, and then Rakesh Chamala outlasted Alexis Baguelin, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at No. 3 to force a 4-4 tie.

The match would then come down to the No. 1 singles match between UDC's Rok Bozic and USciences' Jake Sosonkin. Bozic dropped the first set, 6-2, bounced back to win the 2nd set 6-4, but Sosonkin prevailed in the final set, 7-6 after five tie-breaks to finish off the Devils victory.

UDC will compete at the ITA East Regional Championships next week in East Meadow, NY. The tournament starts on Friday, September 30th and runs until Monday, October 3rd.