Florham, NJ - The Johnson & Wales Charlotte men's tennis team finished runner-up in the 2025 East Coast Athletic Conference Men's Outdoor Tennis Championships on Saturday, falling 4-2 to Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham.

The Wildcats won the doubles point as Hugo Cossais and Maxwell Frederick outlasted the FDU-Florham duo of Kelvin Liwag and Nicholas Weglinski 7- 3 in a tiebreaker to win the #2 doubles match 7-6. Sam Ciccarelllo teammed with Cayden Danzer to win the #3 doubles tilt 6-2.

After dropping the opening set, John Billinis rallied to win the second to force a decider in the #1 singles match. Billinis battled hard, but lost 7-5 in the third. FDU-Florham moved ahead 2-1 when Ronald Duval prevailed over Cossais in the #2 singles match 6-2, 6-3. Frederick won the first set of the #3 singles match in a tiebreak, only to see the Devils' Liwag even things up after two sets. Frederick rallied to cap his outstanding freshman campaign by taking the third set 6-2 and knotting the match score at 2-2.

Sam Ciccarello won the first set of the #4 singles match before dropping the second and third, while Esteban lost 6-2, 6-4 in the #5 singles match, which gave FDU-Florham the winning point.

The Wildcats made history as the first non-NCAA team to compete for an NCAA conference championship, returning with the runner-up trophy.