ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Junior
Dennis Barlotta, Senior
Andrew Freeman and Sophomore
Guido Janssen were double winners as the RWC Men's Tennis team defeated ECC rival Daemen College 4-3.
The match opened with the Redhawks winning the doubles point. Barlotta and Freeman defeated Daemen's Milner and Patrick O'Brien 6-2 at 3
rd doubles. After Daemen took second doubles by a 6-1 score, Janssen and Senior
Boyd Blackburn defeated Jose Williamson and Fabian Wilde in a tight 7-5 match at 1
st doubles.
The Wildcats came back to tie the match when Patrick O'Brien recorded a straight set win over RWC's
Matthew Forrest. Janssen extended the Redhawks lead with a 6-1, 7-5 win over DC's David Gonzales.
Daemen again came back to take the lead when Fabian Wide defeated Tim Nacca in straight sets at 4
th singles and Ricardo Martinez defeated Blackburn in a tight three setter at 1
st singles.
Trailing 3-2, RWC's
Dennis Barlotta tied the match with a three set win over Jose Williamson. Barlotta won the first set 6-4, but Williamson came back to win a second set tiebreaker 7-6(1). Barlotta then won the third set 6-4 for the point at 5
th singles. This set the stage for the thrilling and deciding point at 6
th singles. RWC's Freeman's won the first set 6-4, but DC's Milner rallied for a 7-5 second set win. In the deciding third set, the score was tied 3-3 before Freeman ran the last three games for a clinching 6-3 victory. This is the fourth match this season where Freeman has won the deciding point in the match for the Redhawks.
"This was a high level, hard fought, nail bitter of a college tennis match. This was a big win for us as it puts us in line for the conference championship tournament at the end of the month. A total team effort, this will help us as we face two more ECC opponents later this week.", commented Coach Linhart.
The 11-7 (2-1ECC) Redhawks get a breather before taking on ECC opponents St. Thomas Aquinas College on Friday and Queens College on Saturday. Both matches will be played at the RWC courts.
