April 23, 2007
Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy tennis team earned its first Patriot League title in eight years by recording a 4-0 victory over Army in the championship match of the league tournament, Monday afternoon in Annapolis. The victory, Navy's ninth in a row, sends the Mids to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999.
"We're thrilled to have the opportunity to represent Navy and the Patriot League in the NCAA Tournament once again," said Navy head coach John Officer. "I'm very happy for our players. Winning the league championship has been their goal all year and it is great to see them accomplish what they set out to do.
"We have all of the respect in the world for Army. They are well coached and have very good players."
As has been the case during each of Navy's nine most recent victories, the Mids won the doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead. Army won the first doubles match to be completed, but Navy recorded wins within a span of a few minutes of each other at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles. Nate Nelms (So., St. Mary's, Ga.) and Johnny Waters (So., Papillion, Neb.) first posted an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles over Phil Muhawi and John Houghton, with Navy winning the point when its No. 3 duo of Alex James (Jr., Visalia, Calif.) and Ramsey Lemaich (Fr., Danville, Calif.) defeated Bruno Lucivero and Charles Mullenger by a score of 8-6.
"The doubles matches were critical," said Officer.
When the two schools faced each other eight days ago in West Point, a 4-3 Navy victory, Houghton posted a straight-set victory over Nelms at No. 1 singles. It was a different result Monday as Nelms was the first player off the court following a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Houghton.
The Mids then recorded their third point of the day when team captain Adrian Lai (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.) won a 7-5, 6-3 decision over Michael Good at No. 3 singles. Winning the clinching point for the second time in as many days was Lemaich, who recorded a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Lucivero at No. 6 singles.
Navy led in one of the remaining three singles matches when play ended, with all three of the contests in their third set.
"We had some nervous parts of our matches today, but I think we managed it pretty well," said Officer. "We kept playing with an aggressive mindset."
Nelms, who lost a combined five games in winning his two singles matches during the tournament, received the Joe Abrahamson Award as the tournament's most valuable player.
"We've worked hard all season and put in a lot of time," said Nelms. "This weekend I really made up my mind to play as well as I could. I didn't want to let the team down."
"This feels really good," said Lai. "We had a tough stretch of the season when we were playing a brutal schedule, but we turned it around at the end of the year."
The NCAA Tournament pairings will be announced May 1, with the opening two rounds of the championship taking place May 11-12.
The Mids, the top-seeded team in the Patriot League will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 15-10 record while second-seeded Army sees its season come to an end with an 11-12 record.
No. 1 Navy 4, No. 2 Army 0
Doubles (Navy wins the doubles point)
1. Nelms/Waters (N) def. Muhawi/Houghton, 8-3
2. Good/Kang (A) def. Jason Hill/Lai, 8-4
3. Lemaich/James (N) def. Mullenger/Lucivero, 8-6
Singles
1. Nate Nelms (N) def. John Houghton, 6-3, 6-0
2. Phil Muhawi (A) led John Waters, 6-4, 4-6, 4-3, DNF
3. Adrian Lai (N) def. Michael Good, 7-5, 6-3
4. Eddie Kang (A) led Stanley Kahl, 6-7 (8-6), 6-1, 5-4, DNF
5. Alex James (N) led Charles Mullenger, 4-6, 7-6 (7-0), 5-2, DNF
6. Ramsey Lemaich (N) def. Bruno Lucivero, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
DNF - Did Not Finish
Order Of Finish: Singles 1-3-6, Doubles 2-1-3
