April 23, 2019
For the first time since 2016, the St. John's men's tennis team sits atop of the conference as the top-seeded Johnnies pulled off a come-from-behind victory over No. 3 seed Marquette, 4-3, to win the 2019 BIG EAST Men's Tennis Championships presented by Jeep on Monday.
With the victory, the Red Storm (19-5) has clinched a spot in the 2019 NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament with an automatic qualifier and will find out its opponent, location, and date on Monday, April 29, at 6 p.m.
"Our team has so much heart and it showed off today. To come back from a 3-0 deficit, it's unbelievable. These guys deserve it," stated Head Coach Dillon Pottish.
The Golden Eagles (15-9) had proven to be a tough opponent for the Johnnies at last year's BIG EAST Championships as Marquette defeated St. John's, 4-2, in the conference semifinal match.
In doubles play, the Johnnies and the Golden Eagles traded wins in the No. 1 and No. 2 contests. After Andrei Crapcenco and Udayan Bhakar dropped their match, 7-5, in the No. 1 bout, Alan Nunez Aguilera and Ognjen Trejgut forced a decisive third match for the doubles point, winning on the No. 2 court, 6-3.
Dusan Vukicevic and Daniel Skripnik were pushed to the limit in their match at the No. 3 spot. The duo ultimately fell to Fran San Andreas and Luke Smrek in a tiebreaker, 7-6(6).
The Johnnies quickly fell into a hole in singles play when Marquette won the first two matches on the No. 5 and 6 courts to pull within one match from claiming the BIG EAST title. In the No. 5 contest, Bhakar fell to Marquette's Greg Anderson in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, while Brandon Shanklin defeated Trejgut in the No. 6 bout, 6-2, 6-3.
Down 3-0, the Red Storm was in need of some magic from a few of its seniors in order to pull of the comeback. St. John's gained its first point of the contest when Aditya Vashistha defeated Luis Heredia Gomez in straight-sets, 7-5, 6-2.
In a matter of minutes, seniors Nunez Aguilera and Crapcenco level the match at three points apiece. Nunez Aguilera topped Luke Smrek in the No. 2 contest, 6-4, 6-4, winning his third singles match this weekend.
On the No. 1 court, Crapcenco rallied in the final set to square the match at three with a win over Alvaro Verdu, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
The title came down to Vukicevic on the No. 4 court, who had already dropped the first set to Brett Meyers, 7-5, by the time all the matches before him had finished. Vukicevic quickly evened the match by claiming the second set, 6-4. With the momentum on his side, the senior forced a tiebreaker to decide the conference championship.
Despite losing the first to points in the tiebreaker, the Serbian native mustered off six unanswered points to give his team the BIG EAST title. Up, 6-3 in the tiebreak, Vukicevic saw a Meyers' backhand fly past the baseline, securing the 2019 BIG EAST title for St. John's.
"Our goal was to bring back a championship to New York and we did it. This is only just the beginning," added Pottish.
After sealing the Red Storm's fourth conference championship in six years, Vukicevic was named the BIG EAST Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
St. John's will await its NCAA Tournament opponent, location, and time on Monday, April 26, at 6 p.m. via the NCAA selection show on NCAA.com.