CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Despite a delay to let the courts dry, the Royals tennis program came out swinging in their conference match against Lincoln Memorial today. With the men's 7-2 win and women's 6-3 win both teams have won three conference matches in a row and a poised for strong positioning in the conference tournament.
 
Men
 
Showing a renewed focus the men came out strong in doubles and picked up all three available points. Led by the number one team of Per-Erik Soler and David Jiang (8-4) the Royals consistently demonstrated their dominance and seemed to gain strength throughout their matches. Joining them in earning victories were the pairings of Andre Bafume and Ole-Jacob Meum and Ignacio Casali and Will Roberson who both won 8-5.
 
Queens carried over that momentum into singles play where they picked up four wins with three coming in straight sets. Earning victories for the Royals was Soler whose opponent was forced to retire in the second set, Casali (6-3, 6-4), Meum (7-6, 6-3), and Roberson who gutted out a fierce 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 victory.
 
The men are now 9-4 overall, and 5-2 in conference play.
 
Women
 
Unlike the men the women's team struggled early on to find their footing in the match. Usually their strong suit, doubles play was treacherous for the Royals and only the pairing of Jaclyn Rock and Claire Hamilton (8-1) were able to pick up a win for the home side.
 
Rather than folding the Royals did just the opposite, and came to life in singles play where they picked up five points and looked dominant. The trio of Christina Rustscheff (6-2, 6-2), Melissa Laing (6-0, 6-0), and Hamilton (6-3, 6-1) led the way for Queens, and picked up straight set victories. Joining them in the victory was Rock (7-6, 3-6, 7-5) and Farina Rafiq (2-6, 6-4, 10-7) who faced difficult opponents.
 
The women are now 11-2 overall and 6-1 in conference play.