April 22, 2007

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The top-seeded Navy tennis team posted a 4-0 victory over fourth-seeded Bucknell in the semifinal round of the Patriot League Tournament, Sunday morning at the U.S. Naval Academy. The victory, Navy's eighth in a row, moves the Mids into Monday's 1 p.m. championship match against the winner of Sunday's second semifinal match between No. 2 Army and No. 3 Colgate.

"Our guys really came ready to play today," said Navy head coach John Officer. "They have had the goal of winning the league title all season, and they came focused today to continue striving to accomplish that goal."

Navy took an early 1-0 lead in the doubles portion of the match as Alex James (Jr., Visalia, Calif.) and Ramsey Lemaich (Fr., Danville, Calif.) posted an 8-2 win over Daniel Bednarek and Ben Young at No. 3 doubles. The Mids then won the doubles point when their No. 2 team of Jason Hill (So., Marietta, Ga.) and Adrian Lai (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.) responded to being down a break of serve to the Bison duo of Zach Hascoe and Ira Reibeisen by breaking Bucknell's serve three-straight times to record an 8-4 victory.

"This was Jason's first match in some time because of an injury and he really made a difference out there," said Officer. "He and Adrian did a nice job of bouncing back from losing their serve early in the match."

The Mids then quickly pulled to within match point when Nate Nelms (So., St. Mary's, Ga.) and James lost a combined five games in winning their respective matches at No. 1 and 5 singles. A 6-4, 6-2 victory by Lemaich at No. 6 singles ended the contest a short while later.

Navy led in two of the remaining three singles matches when play was stopped.

"Nate played really well at No. 1 singles, Alex won pretty handily and Ramsey, our freshman in the lineup, recorded the winning point for us," said Officer.

The win improves Navy's record on the year to 14-10, while Bucknell's season comes to a close with a 10-13 record.

The Mids are appearing in their first league title match since 2001 and will be attempting to win their first league championship since 1999.

Navy recorded 4-3 victories over both Army and Colgate during the regular season.

Navy (14-10) def. Bucknell (10-13), 4-0
Doubles (Navy wins the doubles point)
1 - Brenner/Sandburg (B) led Nelms/Waters, 6-5 (unfinished)
2 - Jason Hill/Lai (N) def. Hascoe/Reibeisen, 8-4
3 - James/Lemaich (N) def.Bednarek/Young, 8-2

Singles
1 - Nate Nelms (N) def. Ira Reibeisen, 6-1, 6-1
2 - Ryan Sandburg (B) led Johnny Waters, 6-1, 2-3 (unfinished)
3 - Adrian Lai (N) led Zach Hascoe, 6-4, 2-0 (unfinished)
4 - Stanley Kahl (N) led Jonathan Brenner, 6-3, 5-2 (unfinished)
5 - Alex James (N) def. Ben Young, 6-2, 6-1
6 - Ramsey Lemaich (N) def. Daniel Bednarek, 6-4, 6-2