Sparkill, N.Y. - St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Tennis battled tooth and nail to earn a hard-fought 4-3 victory over undefeated and No. 35 ITA Division II nationally ranked Queens College in a pivotal East Coast Conference showdown on Tuesday at the Riley Family Tennis Courts.

With the win, STAC improves to 11-3 overall and 4-0 in ECC play, while Queens falls to 14-1 and 3-1.

The Spartans set the tone early by capturing the doubles point with two out of three victories, highlighted by a 7-5 win by No. 3 Ondrej Sramek and Erik Victor Tauson, along with a 7-6 (7-5) triumph by No. 2 Don Vinz Lominoque and Nagamitsu Kuroda. With a 1-0 lead in hand, STAC was in the driver's seat early on in the match.

When the sides turned their attention to singles play, the maroon and gold were able to put the Knights on the ropes quickly with wins by Theo Renoux at No. 2 (6-4, 6-3) and Don Vinz Lominoque at No. 3 (6-4, 6-1) to give the hosts a commanding 3-0 advantage. However, Queens was able to right the ship and win three straight matches themselves at Nos. 4, 1 and 6 to set up a dramatic finish with the match tied 3-3.

The deciding No. 5 singles bout would be forced in consecutive set tie breaks, thanks to the outstanding play of both STAC's Ondrej Sramek and Queens' Samuel Linck. As the temperatures in Sparkill started to drop and daylight began to wane, the spirit and enthusiasm of both the participants and spectators got stronger. Ultimately Sramek would prevail 7-6 (6) and 7-6 (7) to end the the day's events and send the fans, his teammates and coaches into joyous celebration.