April 16, 2005

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's men's tennis team closed out the 2004-05 season with a narrow 4-3 victory over Rutgers on the Finnesey Courts. Senior Francisco Velazquez, the winningest player in program history, closed out his career with wins at both first singles and doubles en route to the victory. His three-set singles victory proved to be the decisive point.

SJU got off to a good start by securing the doubles point. Juniors Jimmy Holland and Antonio Aniello delivered an 8-4 win at #2 and junior Chris Spencer and senior Van Homer Pangilinan won 8-5 at #3. Velazquez and junior A.J. Garabedian completed the sweep with a 9-8 tie-break victory at #1.

The two teams split the singles matches, with SJU claiming the odd slots and the Scarlet Knights winning at the even positions. Garabedian (6-3, 6-2) and Spencer (6-1, 6-4) each won in straight set to push SJU to the brink of victory.

Velazquez, in his final match, earned a three-set tie-break victory to give SJU the win. He took the first set 7-5, but dropped the second 3-6. He claimed the match by winning a third set tie-breaker, 7-5.