Results
Draw Sheets

HARTFORD, CT—NJIT junior Steve Erickson captured the Flight A Singles championship of the 2008 ECAC (Eastern College Athletic Conference) Open, hosted by Trinity College on Saturday and Sunday.

Erickson, the number one men's player for the Highlanders, captured all three of his matches in the tournament, including an impressive 6-2, 6-0 win over Robert Ferrante of Fairfield in Sunday's championship final.

Erickson is the first NJIT men's player ever to capture the championship of the ECAC Open, which this year included six teams from two NCAA divisions.

The Division I schools participating were: NJIT; Delaware (which won the team championship); Fairfield and Lafayette. Host Trinity and New York University represented Division III in the tournament.

Erickson had defeated Spencer Feldman of Trinity and Austin Longacre of Delaware on Saturday to qualify for the Sunday match against Fairfield's Ferrante.

Erickson was the only champion for NJIT, but three other Highlanders reached the Back Draw Game and Cosmin Chiujdea was the winner in Flight B, defeating Fairfield's Ryan Berthod in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.

Jonathan Lang of the Highlanders reached the Back Draw Game in Flight C, but lost to George Laffey, also of Fairfield, in three sets.

In Flight D, NJIT's Dimitri Athans fell to Delaware's Chris Hinker in straight sets.

The Highlanders were shut out of team points in the doubles competition.

Success in a championship tournament format is not new for Erickson, who was the runner-up in the New Jersey high school state Tournament of Champions in 2006, his senior year at Emerson High School.

Erickson, who was seeded ninth in that tournament, won four matches in six days, including three against players seeded in the top five, one of whom was ranked in the top 100 in the nation, in his drive to the T of C final.

Next up for the NJIT men is a match against Fordham on Friday at 3 pm in Newark's Branch Brook Park.