West Windsor, N.J. – The fifth-seeded Le Moyne College men's tennis team won its Northeast Conference Championship debut, 4-2, over fourth-seeded LIU in the quarterfinals on Friday night at the Mercer County Tennis Center.
With the victory, the Dolphins advance to the semifinals, where they will face top-seeded Binghamton University. The time of the match will be determined Saturday morning.
The Dolphins opened the match by claiming the doubles point. At the second position, junior
Peter Hatton (Syracuse, N.Y./Jamesville-DeWitt/Club Med Academics/Army West Point) and graduate student
Luka Stojanovic (Paracin, Serbia/Kosta Cukic/University of Incarnate Word/Lipscomb) defeated Dani Ostap and Lucas Hornung, 6-2. Leon Harder and Victor Sjostrom evened doubles at one apiece, 6-3, over graduate students
Kacper Piekarek (Wroclaw, Poland/Autorskrie Licea Artystyczne Akademickie/Missouri-Kansas City) and
Rodrigo Beires (Porto, Portugal/Agrupamento de Escolas Garcia de Orta/Universidade Portucalense), 6-3, at the third spot. Graduate students
Leon Grundstroem (Hoganas, Sweden/Filborna Gymnasium/Northwood) and
Alvaro Nunez (Jerez De La Frontera, Spain/IES Padre Luis Coloma/Southwest Baptist) clinched the point with a 7-5 win at the top position over Mathieu Vinet and Ales D'Anna. The win by Grundstroem and Nunez was their 21st of the year, the most wins by a doubles team in the program's history.
Le Moyne (11-9) secured its berth in the semifinals by winning three of the five singles matches to finish. Hatton gave the Dolphins a 2-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at the top spot over Philip Hilble. Harder cut into LIU's deficit with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Grundstroem at the second position. Nunez pushed Le Moyne's lead to 3-1 by downing Vinet at the third spot, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. D'Anna kept the Sharks alive with a 6-2, 6-3 win at the fifth position over Stojanovic. Piekarek clinched the victory for the Dolphins by topping Sjostrom at the fourth spot, 7-5, 6-0. Danila Ishchanka was leading Beires at the sixth position, 6-1, 1-1, when the match ended.
