March 25, 2009

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After losing the doubles point, the George Washington men's tennis team won four singles matches to record a 4-3 victory over Navy, Wednesday afternoon at the Tose Family Tennis Center.

From the first serve in the opening doubles match to the last point played in singles, the overall dual between the programs took just under three and one-half hours.

"It was a very good match," said Navy head coach John Officer. "You had two good teams just going at it. George Washington is favored to win the Atlantic 10 Conference title, so this is a great opponent for us to face prior to the start of our Patriot League season this weekend."

Navy (11-7) won the first two doubles matches to be completed to win the doubles point from George Washington (5-6). First to finish was Navy's No. 1 team of Nate Nelms (Sr., St. Mary's, Ga.) and Johnny Waters (Sr., Papillion, Neb.), who won an 8-4 decision over the duo of Uguy Atalay and Richard Blumenfeld. The Mids then secured the doubles point when Owen Bullard (So., Concord, N.C.) and Ramsey Lemaich (Jr., Danville, Calif.) posted an 8-6 win over Erik Hannah and Arya Vayghan at No. 3 doubles.

The last doubles match saw George Washington's Chris Kushma and Yan Levinski post an 8-6 win over Nick Birger (So., Belleville, Ill.) and Jason Hill (Sr., Marietta, Ga.).

The Colonials evened the overall match score at one point apiece when Kushma tallied a 6-4, 6-4 win over Lemaich at No. 5 singles, then took a 2-1 lead as Levinski recorded a 6-1, 6-3 win over Marcus Rebersak (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) at No. 2 singles. The No. 4 singles match was next to finish and that contest saw Hill win a 6-0, 6-4 decision over Vayghan to tie the overall score at two points apiece. George Washington would then take a 3-2 lead when Hannah posted a 6-4, 6-2 win over Waters at No. 3 singles.

That left two marathon matches remaining on the court, with Nelms and Atalay battling at No. 1 singles and Bullard taking on Alex Sohali at No. 6 singles. Atalay and Bullard both won the opening sets of their respective matches by fairly decisive margins on the scoreboard, but the second set in both contests were a different story. The Bullard-Sohali match would eventually go into a prolonged second-set tiebreaker, with Sohali finally winning the breaker by the score of 17-15 to force a third set. Moments after the tiebreaker was completed, Nelms posted a 7-5 win in the second set to also send his match to a third set.

Nelms held serve to win the opening game of the third set and the duo would remain on serve until Atalay broke Nelms in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. There would not be a break of serve again and that allowed Atalay to win the set by the score of 6-4 and give the Colonials their fourth team point of the afternoon.

Bullard bounced back from his emotional second set loss to post a 6-1 victory in the third set to make the final score on the afternoon 4-3.

"I felt our team spirit was great today and everyone fought hard throughout the afternoon," said Officer. "We just weren't able to get the job done in the end."

The Midshipmen will both open their Patriot League season and close the home portion of their schedule this weekend when Navy plays host to Bucknell (Saturday) and Colgate (Sunday). Both matches are slated to begin at 12 Noon and, weather permitting, will be played outdoors on The Yard. Should poor weather force the matches indoors they will instead be played at the Tose Family Tennis Center.

George Washington 4, Navy 3
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (match finish order: 1-3-2)
1. Nelms, Nate / Waters, Johnny (NAVY) def. Atalay, Uguy / Blumenfeld, Richard (GWU) 8-4
2. Kushma, Chris / Levinski, Yan (GWU) def. Birger, Nick / Hill, Jason (NAVY) 8-6
3. Bullard, Owen / Lemaich, Ramsey (NAVY) def. Hannah, Erik / Vayghan, Arya (GWU) 8-6
Singles (match finish order: 5-2-4-3-1-6)
1. Atalay, Uguy (GWU) def. Nelms, Nate, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4
2. Levinski, Yan (GWU) def. Rebersak, Marcus, 6-1, 6-3
3. Hannah, Erik (GWU) def. Waters, Johnny, 6-4, 6-2
4. Hill, Jason (NAVY) def. Vayghan, Arya, 6-0, 6-4
5. Kushma, Chris (GWU) def. Lemaich, Ramsey, 6-4, 6-4
6. Bullard, Owen (NAVY) def. Sohali, Alex, 6-1, 6-7 (15-17), 6-1