St. John's University Athletics
Men's Tennis Battles Lehigh Thursday Afternoon
3/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 16, 2006
QUEENS, N.Y. - The St. John's men's tennis team travels to Bethlehem, Pa. Thursday to take on the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh University in non-conference action. This is the first meeting between the two teams since 1998, when the Red Storm defeated the Mountain Hawks, 5-2, on Feb. 14.
NOTING THE RED STORM: The Red Storm has a 4-4 overall record and a 1-0 mark in the BIG EAST. Junior Louis Desmarteaux (Thornhill, Ontario) leads St. John's with an 11-1 overall record playing at the No. 1 position. He is the first player on the team to earn double-digit singles wins this season. Freshman Aliaksandr Svelakov (Minsk, Belarus) is second on the team with a 9-3 singles mark playing mostly at the No. 4 spot, and senior David Nylen (Orebro, Sweden) is third with a 7-3 singles record seeing action at the No. 2 position.
In doubles play, junior Tom Green (Norwich, England) and Nylen are 6-4 at the No. 2 spot, while senior Morgan Bauer (New York, N.Y.) and junior Claudio Halim (Jakarta, Indonesia) are 5-4 playing at the No. 3 position.
LAST TIME OUT: In its last contest, St. John's was victorious over the U.S. Military Academy, 5-2, in West Point, N.Y. The Red Storm swept all three doubles position to give it the advantage heading into singles action. In singles play, Army picked up its two points at the No. 3 and No. 6 positions as Phil Muhawi topped Green in a three set match (4-6, 6-3, 6-4), while David Collins defeated Halim in straight sets (7-6, 6-4). Army drove St. John's to two other three set matches at the No. 1 and No. 4 spots. Desmarteaux downed Jake Houghton (3-6, 6-1, 7-6), while Svetlakov grabbed the win over Eddie Kang (4-6, 6-0, 7-5).
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAIN HAWKS: Lehigh enters Thursday's match with an 8-2 overall record. Early in the season the Mountain Hawks produced a seven game winning streak that was ended last Thursday with a 7-0 loss to the Hatters of Stetson. The Mountain Hawks are coached by Dave Shook, who is in his 17th season at Lehigh and has a coaching record of 180-131 since 1990.
This season Lehigh is lead by junior Alfredo Fernandez-Concha, who has an 8-1 overall singles record playing mostly at the No. 3 position. Sophomore John Nespoli is second in singles play with an 8-2 overall mark seeing action mostly at the No. 5 position, while senior Randall Smalley, who was named to the 2005 All-Patriot League second team, is third on the team with a 7-3 overall mark playing mostly at the No. 1 spot.
Lehigh was knocked from its seven game winning streak last Thursday when it fell, 7-0, to Stetson. The Mountain Hawks pulled away with a doubles match win at the No. 3 position but were unable to capitalize elsewhere. Junior Ryan Lloyd and freshman Drew Balshi picked up the 8-3 win for Lehigh.
ON DECK FOR ST. JOHN'S: The Red Storm returns to action on Friday, March 31 when it will host the Seawolves of Stony Brook on the Courts at St. John's. First serve is scheduled for 3 p.m.
For the most up-to-date information and statistics on St. John's Athletics, please visit www.RedStormSports.com, or call our hotline at 1-888-GO-STORM.
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