Feb. 22, 2009

Final Stats

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Navy men's tennis team dropped its second match in as many days to an Ivy League program when the Midshipmen lost a 6-1 decision to Penn Sunday afternoon at Levy Pavilion in Philadelphia.

Navy (8-3) recorded victories in a pair of doubles matches to win the doubles point over Penn (4-3). Navy dropped the No. 2 doubles match, but then Nick Birger (So., Belleville, Ill.) and Jason Hill (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) posted an 8-5 win against Phil Law and Jason Lin at No. 3 doubles to even the match. The Mids won the point when Nate Nelms (Sr., St. Mary's, Ga.) and Johnny Waters (Sr., Papillion, Neb.) won an 8-6 decision over Jonathan Boym and Hicham Laalej at No. 1 doubles.

"We started off in much better shape today than we did Saturday against Yale," said Navy head coach John Officer. "We lost all three doubles matches to Yale, but won the doubles point today against Penn. We played well in the early part of some of the singles matches today, but just couldn't hang on."

Nelms won the opening set of his No. 1 singles match against Laalej by the score of 6-1, but Laalej forced a third set with his 7-5 win in the second set. The duo played a 10-point tiebreaker instead of a complete third set to decide the match, which Laalej won by the score of 10-5.

Waters and Hill also played strong opening sets of their matches at Nos. 3 and 4 singles, respectively. Waters won the first three games of his first set match against Law before losing by the score of 8-6 in a tiebreaker. Law would go on to close out the match with a 6-2 victory in the second set. Hill, meanwhile, won the first set of his contest against Alex Vasin by the score of 6-3 before losing the second set by an identical score. Vasin would eventually post a 7-5 victory in the third set to win the match.

Another close match took place at No. 5 singles where Jason Lin won a 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) contest over Ramsey Lemaich (Jr., Danville, Calif.).

Navy will open a three-match trip to the Carolinas Thursday when the Mids play at North Carolina.

Penn 6, Navy 1
Doubles -- Penn wins the doubles point; Match Finish: 2-3-1
1. Nelms, Nate/Waters, Johnny (NAVY) def. Boym, Jonathan/Laalej, Hicham (PENN) 8-6
2. Roth, Justen/Vasin, Alex (PENN) def. Bullard, Owen/Nicholson, Zach (NAVY) 8-6
3. Birger, Nick/Hill, Jason (NAVY) def. Law, Phil/Lin, Jason (PENN) 8-5
Singles -- Match Finish: 6-2-3-5-1-4
1. Laalej, Hicham (PENN) def. Nelms, Nate (NAVY) 1-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-5)
2. Boym, Jonathan (PENN) def. Rebersak, Marcus (NAVY) 6-2, 6-4
3. Law, Phil (PENN) def. Waters, Johnny (NAVY) 7-6 (8-6), 6-2
4. Vasin, Alex (PENN) def. Hill, Jason (NAVY) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
5. Lin, Jason (PENN) def. Lemaich, Ramsey (NAVY) 6-4, 7-6 (7-0)
6. Roth, Justen (PENN) def. Bullard, Owen (NAVY) 6-2, 6-3