Oct. 28, 2006

Final Stats

ITHACA, N.Y. - The fall season for the Navy tennis team came to a close Saturday as the Mids were eliminated in their respective draws at the Cornell Fall Indoor Invitational in Ithaca, N.Y.

The lone Mid to compete on the day in the championship portion of a singles bracket was Luke Albi (So., Cincinnati, Ohio) in the 'C' flight. After winning a pair of matches Friday, Albi upset the top seed in the draw, Jon Bonnet of Binghamton, Saturday with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph.

"Luke played excellent in his opening match today," said Navy assistant coach John Moreland.

That win moved Albi into the semifinal round of the draw, where he dropped a 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 decision to Brian Yung of Cornell.

"It was a tough match for Luke," said Moreland. "He had two set points while receiving serve at 5-3 then, in the tiebreaker, had a third at 6-5, but couldn't convert any of them. Then his back started acting up early in the second set."

The Navy doubles team of Alex James (Jr., Visalia, Calif.) and Adrian Lai (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.) won their opening round match of the 'A' flight Friday and advanced to play the flight's top-seeded team of Pedro Genovese and Federico Rolon from Marist in the quarterfinal round of the draw Saturday. Genovese and Rolon posted an 8-4 win over the Navy duo.

"Alex and Adrian played pretty well, but it just was not enough against one of the better teams in our region," said Moreland.

James and Lai also competed in the consolation bracket of their respective singles draw Saturday. James, competing in the 'B' flight, posted an 8-5 win over Justin Salkin of Binghamton before losing an 8-3 contest to Marshall Wheeler of Colgate. Lai, meanwhile, rallied from a 6-3 deficit to tie the score of his 'A' flight match to Temple's Nathan Spunda at 7-7 before losing by a score of 9-7.