Jan. 26, 2008

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy tennis team opened its new indoor facility, the Brigade Sports Complex, Saturday afternoon with a pair of victories over Georgetown and Mount St. Mary's. The Mids defeated the Hoyas by the score of 6-1 and posted a 7-0 victory over the Mountaineers to improve to 3-1 on the young season.

The lineups for both Navy and Georgetown Saturday were very similar to those of a year ago when the Hoyas recorded a 5-2 win over the Mids. This year, the Mids won the doubles point and posted a trio of three-set singles victories to record the victory.

The doubles match was tied at one win apiece until Navy's team of Alex James (Sr., Visalia, Calif.) and Ramsey Lemaich (So., Danville, Calif.) recorded an 8-6 win at No. 2 doubles over Georgetown's duo of Will Lowell and Anthony Tan to give Navy the lone available doubles point.

The No. 1 singles match featured a pair of regionally-ranked players in Navy's Nate Nelms (Jr., St. Mary's, Ga.) and Georgetown's Jeff Schnell. Nelms, the 24th ranked player in the region, would win a 6-3, 6-2 decision over the 25th ranked Schnell.

Like Nelms, Owen Bullard (Fr., Concord, N.C.) won his match at No. 6 singles in straight sets. He posted a 7-5, 6-3 win over Ted Tywang to give Navy a 3-1 lead in the team scoring.

Lemaich at No. 4 singles and James at No. 5 singles both would win their matches in three sets, with both winning their respective final set by the score of 6-4. James would clinch the overall victory for the Mids with his win at No. 5 singles over David Tillem.

Additionally in singles, Jason Hill (Jr., Marietta, Ga.) lost the opening set of match against Adam Gross at the No. 3 flight in a tiebreaker (7-5) then, after winning 6-1 in the second set, again went to a tiebreaker to decide the third set. Hill would go on to tally an 11-9 win in the breaker to win the match.

"We have a lot of respect for Georgetown and what they accomplished last year," said Navy head coach John Officer. "I felt we played very well to come away with the 6-1 win today. It was nice to see that for the second-straight week we were able to pull out two victories after dropping the first set of the match.

"We want to duplicate many of our accomplishments from last year, but we want to quantitatively show an improvement over a year ago, as well. Georgetown beat us last year and was ranked higher than us at the end of the year, so the win today was a great first step towards making that improvement."

The Mids then went out later in the day against Mount St. Mary's and dropped a combined five games in doubles and 16 in singles to record the 7-0 win.

"We played everyone on the roster tonight," said Officer. "That meant almost everyone was playing up in the lineup, and for some guys it was a significant jump. Despite that, we still were able to come away with some convincing scores."

Navy will play seven of its next eight matches inside the Brigade Sports Complex, something Officer is looking forward to.

"We are so excited to have this facility and to be able to play these matches today," said Officer. "To face a very good team in Georgetown for our first match and to come away with the win helped to make this day memorable.

"The building is already paying dividends for us. We are playing much better this early in the season than in past years, and being able to train here is a big part of that."

Navy will return to the Brigade Sports Complex play host to Howard (12 Noon) and Villanova (5 p.m.) Feb. 2.

Navy (2-1) def. Georgetown (3-1), 6-1
Doubles (Navy wins the doubles point)
1 - Nelms/Waters (N) def. Schnell/Kevin Walsh, 8-3
2 - James/Lemaich (N) def. Lowell/Tan, 8-6
3 - Tillem/Tywang (G) def. Birger/Hill, 8-5
Finish Order - 1-2-3*

Singles
1 - Nate Nelms (N) def. Jeff Schnell, 6-3, 6-2
2 - Anthony Tan (G) def. Johnny Waters, 6-3, 6-2
3 - Jason Hill (N) def. Adam Gross, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 7-6 (11-9)
4 - Ramsey Lemaich (N) def. Will Lowell, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
5 - Alex James (N) def. David Tillem, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4
6 - Owen Bullard (N) def. Ted Tywang, 7-5, 6-3
Finish Order - 1-6-2-5*-4-3

Navy (3-1) def. Mount St. Mary's (0-1), 7-0
Doubles (Navy wins the doubles point)
1 - Nelms/Waters (N) def. Marinucci/Taylor, 8-4
2 - Michael Eisenberg / Alex James (N) def. Osorio/Plastow, 8-1
3 - Luke Albi / Kyle Jones (N) def. Dupaya/Mostowtt, 8-0
Finish Order - 3-2*-1

Singles
1 - Johnny Waters (N) def. Favio Osorio, 6-0, 6-2
2 - Alex James (N) def. Derek Taylor, 6-4, 6-1
3 - Jeremy New (N) def. Andrew Marinucci, 6-4, 6-0
4 - Jarrad Smoke (N) def. Patrick Plastow, 6-0, 6-1
5 - Joe Wiggins (N) def. Thadd Mostowtt, 6-0, 6-1
6 - Nick Birger (N) def. Rob Dupaya, 6-2, 6-1
Finish Order - 4-5-3*-2-6-1