Firebirds Soar to 3rd Straight Victory, 8-1 vs. Philadelphia

WASHINGTON, DC – The University of the District of Columbia men's tennis team won its 3^rd straight match on Sunday as the host Firebirds defeated non-conference Division II East Region foe Philadelphia University, 8-1.

The Firebirds (3-2) won all three doubles matches and five of six singles matches to complete the victory. The Rams, a member of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) , fell to 3-4 overall.

In doubles play, Alexis Baguelin and Ander Murillo got the Firebirds off on the right foot with an 8-3 win over Liviu Trifoi and Joseph Sison for the first point of the match. UDC's No. 1 pair of Rok Bozic and Diego Pinto followed with an 8-2 win over Luis Molina and Oskar Haedicke, and then Marco Feligioni and Josip Marinic completed the doubles sweep with a No. 3 win, 8-5 vs. Sean DeBlasio and Jacobo Atri.

Already with a 3-0 lead, UDC more than secured the match victory with wins in the first three completed singles matches at No. 1, 4 and 3, respectively. Bozic defeated Molina, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1, Murillo bested Atri, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 4, and Baguelin beat Trifoi, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 3.

The Firebirds' only loss of the day came at No. 2 singles, where Haedicke improved to 7-0 this season with a comeback win vs. Pinto. After losing the first set to Pinto,  3-6, he bounced back to win the next two sets, 6-0, 6-3.

UDC closed out the day with wins in the final two singles matches at No. 6 and No. 5. Marinic stayed unbeaten (3-0) in No. 6 singles play as he beat Juan Velosa, 8-4, and Feligioni earned a hard-fought, 8-6 win vs. Sison at No. 5.

Next up, the Firebirds will host another CACC school in Chestnut Hill College on March 28^th at 1 p.m.