Firebirds Soar Past St. Thomas Aquinas in ECC Semifinals; Return to ECC Finals

FLUSHING, NY – The top-seeded University of the District of Columbia men's tennis team swept doubles play and picked up two quick singles wins to earn an easy, 5-0 win over No. 4 St. Thomas Aquinas in East Coast Conference Semifinal action Friday afternoon on the campus of Queens. The Firebirds return to the ECC Finals for a second consecutive year where they will face the winner of today's second semifinal match between No. 2 Queens and No. 3 NYIT tomorrow at 12 p.m.

Junior Carlos Quiroga (Electrical Engineering – Valencia, Venezuela/Maria Montessori) and freshman Simon Bratke avenged a regular season loss to William Tronsor and Daniel Maysonet back on March 12^th with an 8-3 decision at No. 3 doubles to get the Firebirds on the board to start the day. Recently named ECC Player of the Year, Aleksandar Grabovac (Psychology – Ljubljana, Slovenia/Gimnazija Euro Sola Ljubljana) and sophomore Simon Andersson then teamed up for an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles, and First Team All-ECC selections, juniors Ike Kiro (Business Management – Milnerton Ridge, South Africa/Milnerton Ridge HS) and Miguel Uzcategui (Electrical Engineering – Valencia, Venezuela/Colegio Sagrado Corazon) won their ninth straight doubles match at the No. 2 spot to complete the doubles sweep.

Only needing two singles wins to complete the match victory, Andersson defeated Daniel Maysonet, 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 4 spot, and Grabovac downed Stan Magarchenko, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1. The other four singles matches were halted at the conclusion of Grabovac's match.