March 29, 2009

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The members of the senior class on the Navy men's tennis team combined to win five matches on the day to spark the Midshipmen to a 6-1 victory over Bucknell, Sunday afternoon at the Tose Family Tennis Center in Annapolis. The match was the last collegiate contest Navy's Class of 2009 -- Luke Albi (Cincinnati, Ohio), Jason Hill (Marietta, Ga.), Nate Nelms (St. Mary's, Ga.) and Johnny Waters (Papillion, Neb.) -- will play in Annapolis during their careers.

With the Mids (13-6, 2-0 Patriot League) already having won the No. 3 doubles match against Bucknell (5-7, 0-1), Navy's No. 2 team of Hill and Nick Birger (So., Belleville, Ill.) clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 win over Jonathan Brenner and Gregg Cohenca. The last match to be completed saw Nelms and Waters post an 8-5 victory over Ryan Sandburg and Anton Kovic at the No. 1 flight.

"We started off very strong in doubles today," said Navy head coach John Officer. "We had a couple of lapses in the middle of the matches, but were able to pick it up in the end."

The Mids quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead as Owen Bullard (So., Concord, N.C.) and Eddie Konrad (Fr., The Woodlands, Texas) won identical 6-0, 6-0 decisions at Nos. 5 and 6 singles, respectively. Earning the fourth and match-clinching point for Navy was Hill, who won a 6-2, 6-2 contest at No. 4 singles over Cohenca. Soon thereafter, Waters recorded a 6-3, 6-1 win over Mark Malloy at No. 3 singles.

Marcus Rebersak (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) won his opening set at No. 2 singles over Kovic by the score of 6-3, but Kovic won the second set (6-4) to force a third set. The duo played a 10-point tiebreaker in place of a complete third set, with Kovic eventually posting a 15-13 win in the tiebreaker to earn what would prove to be the lone point of the day for the Bison.

With every other match completed, the No. 1 singles match between Nelms and Sandburg remained to be decided. After winning the first set (6-3), Nelms found himself down a break of serve early in the second set. He would go on to break Sandburg twice over the remainder of the set to post a 6-3 win and end play on the day.

"We had a couple of dominating performances today in singles," said Officer. "Owen and Eddie didn't drop a game, Jason lost three games in his match and Johnny lost just four games. Nate also had a good, solid win. He did a great job of handling the adversity of being down a break in the second set, as well as having to gut out some very long individual games throughout his match."

Navy will be on the road for the remainder of its season. This stretch of road matches begins this coming weekend when the Mids play Saturday at Lehigh and Sunday at Army.

Navy 6, Bucknell 1
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (match finish order: 3-2-1)
1. Nelms, Nate / Waters, Johnny (NAVY) def. Kovic, Anton / Sandburg, Ryan (BUCK) 8-5
2. Birger, Nick / Hill, Jason (NAVY) def. Brenner, Jonathan / Cohenca, Gregg (BUCK) 8-5
3. Lemaich, Ramsey / Nicholson, Zach (NAVY) def. Bednarek, Daniel / Malloy, Mark (BUCK) 8-3
Singles (match finish order: 6-5-4-3-2-1)
1. Nelms, Nate (NAVY) def. Sandburg, Ryan (BUCK) 6-3, 6-3
2. Kovic, Anton (BUCK) def. Rebersak, Marcus (NAVY) 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (15-13)
3. Waters, Johnny (NAVY) def. Malloy, Mark (BUCK) 6-3, 6-1
4. Hill, Jason (NAVY) def. Cohenca, Gregg (BUCK) 6-2, 6-1
5. Bullard, Owen (NAVY) def. Bednarek, Daniel (BUCK) 6-0, 6-0
6. Konrad, Eddie (NAVY) def. Maxson, Gregory (BUCK) 6-0, 6-0