April 5, 2007

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The ability to win the doubles point proved key again for the Navy tennis team Thursday as the Mids won the point to help run their winning streak to five-straight matches with a 4-3 victory over UMBC at the Severn Valley Tennis and Fitness Club.

Three of Navy's last five wins have been determined by a score of 4-3. The Mids have won the doubles point in each of the last five matches and are 7-1 on the season when winning the doubles point.

The win also improved Navy's record on the season to 11-10, while UMBC fell to 10-5-1 on the year with the loss.

"We beat a quality team today," said Navy head coach John Officer. "It was a hard-fought victory with great rallies in several of the matches."

The two teams split the decisions at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles, which left the No. 3 doubles match between the Navy duo of Alex James (Jr., Visalia, Calif.) and Ramsey Lemaich (Fr., Danville, Calif.) and the UMBC pairing of Fernando Ferreira and Chris Meyer to determine the outcome. The match would be extended into a tiebreaker, with James and Lemaich eventually posting an 8-6 win to secure the point for the Mids.

Each of the singles matches were also close, with four of the matches lasting three sets and tiebreakers being contested in the remaining two matches.

Lemaich recorded his second victory of the day and gave the Mids a 2-0 lead with a 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) win at No. 6 singles over Ferreira. Nick Savage-Pollock, however, quickly pulled the Retrievers to within one point of the Mids at 2-1 with a 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 victory over James at No. 5 singles.

The teams also split the ensuing two completed matches, as well, with Navy's Johnny Waters (So., Papillion, Neb.) winning by a 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 score over Chris Meyer at No. 2 singles and Fredi Voorman of UMBC topping Stanley Kahl (Sr., Richland, Pa.) at No. 4 singles.

Nate Nelms (So., St. Mary's, Ga.) dropped the first set of his No. 1 singles match to Ifran Shamasdin by a score of 6-1, then fell behind 4-0 in the second set. Shamasdin would soon hold a match point over Nelms, but the Navy sophomore fought it off and eventually won the second set by a score of 7-5. Nelms would then control the third set and go on to post a 6-0 victory in the set to give the Mids their clinching fourth point of the day.

"What a great rally by Nate," said Officer. "It was an impressive comeback."

The final match of the day went UMBC's way, with David Jackson recording a 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 2-1 (10-3) win over Adrian Lai (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.) at the No. 3 flight.

Navy will close its regular season with matches April 14 at Lehigh and the following day in the Star Match at Army.

"We have some thing to work on and clean up as we approach the end of the regular season, the Star Match against Army and the Patriot League Tournament," said Officer.

Navy (11-10) def. UMBC (10-5-1), 4-3
Severn Valley Tennis & Fitness Club (indoors)

Doubles (Navy wins the doubles point)
1 - Nelms/Waters (Navy) def. Voorman/Savage-Pollock, 8-5
2 - Jackson/Shamasdin (UMBC) def. Kahl/Lai, 8-4
3 - James/Lemaich (Navy) def. Ferreira/Meyer, 9-8 (8-6)

Singles
1 - Nate Nelms (Navy) def. Ifran Shamasdin, 1-6, 7-5, 6-0
2 - John Waters (Navy) def. Chris Meyer, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0
3 - David Jackson (UMBC) def. Adrian Lai, 4-6 7-6 (7-3), 2-1 (10-3)
4 - Fredi Voorman (UMBC) def. Stanley Kahl, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
5 - Savage-Pollock (UMBC) def. Alex James, 7-6 (10-8), 6-3
6 - Ramsey Lemaich (Navy) def. Fernando Ferreira, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5)