Sept. 24, 2009

• All-Time Army-Navy Results

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Winners of nine of the last 11 Star Matches including three straight, the Navy golf team will play host to Army this Saturday in the 72nd playing of the Army-Navy Star Match. This year's one-day event will be played at the Naval Academy Golf Course and will feature a 36-hole Ryder Cup-style match. The competition will begin at 8:00 am with four 4-ball matches, followed by seven singles matches. The first team to reach six points will be declared the winner.

"Our players have been working hard on their games and as always, they look forward to the challenge of competing against a strong Army team," said 20th-year Navy head coach Pat Owen, who owns an 11-8 record in dual action against the Black Knights. "Army is coming off a terrific victory at its own home opener, and I am sure they will be prepared to play their best."

Navy enters the competition owning a commanding 41-29-1 advantage over the Black Knights in the annual dual match which was first played in 1939 at Sherwood Forest. Among the 71 previously-played duals, 44 have utilized the Ryder Cup format, including each of the last seven. The Mids have won 16 of the 20 Ryder Cup-style duals played in Annapolis and own an 8-4 overall record in match play under Owen's guidance.

Last year's Army-Navy match may have been the most exciting series history, as Navy's Ryan Wielgus (Bethesda, Md.) sank a 15-foot putt for birdie on the first playoff hole to lead the Midshipmen to a sudden death victory (5.5 - 5.5) over the Black Knights.

"Without a doubt, that was the most thrilling Army-Navy contest I've been involved with," said a jubilant Owen following the competition.

Navy entered the singles competition facing a one-point deficit after Army won two of the four 4-ball matches and halved a third to take a 2.5-1.5 advantage after the opening day. After second-year standout Josh Ziska (Camarillo, Calif.) came up with a big win for the Mids in singles play, it came down to a Navy freshman to force sudden death.

Furthermore, the final singles bout featured an Army senior vs. a Navy freshman. Army's Adam Renfroe was coming off a 5 & 4 win over the Mids' Josh Ziska (Camarillo, Calif.) and Rob Merkert (Severna Park, Md.) a day earlier, while Navy rookie Peter Reilly (Merrimack, N.H.), who entered the competition having played in just one college tournament, took to the links having watched his teammates from the gallery the day before. Reilly would not be denied, however, as he sank his four-foot putt on the 18th hole to propel the two programs into the series' first sudden death match in the current Ryder Cup format.

Both coaches looked to their No. 1 singles player to represent their respective team, Matt Krembel for Army and Wielgus for Navy. Wielgus entered the playoff for the Mids with the odds stacked against him. Battling a wrist injury for the better part of a year, he had not seen action in Navy's three fall tournaments leading up to the Army-Navy match and furthermore had lost his singles match to Matt Krembel on the final hole earlier in the day, as well as his four-ball match a day prior.

Krembel crushed his shot off the tee on the 17th hole, while Wielgus' shot managed to clip a tree and ended up in the light rough just in front of the mighty sandtrap below the green. Because of the position of the ball, Wielgus was conservative with his second shot and knocked his wedge about 10 feet from the cup. Meanwhile, Krembel's wedge hit roughly 16 inches short of the hole before spinning back to 25 feet. Krembel's uphill putt came up six inches short, opening the door for Wielgus. Wielgus took his time before stepping up and sinking the putt for birdie and the Navy win.

Saturday's golf match marks the first head-to-head Army-Navy competition of the year, while later in the evening (8:00 pm), the Army and Navy men's soccer teams will battle for the Star at Glenn Warner Soccer Facility in Annapolis.

Navy leads the all-time series among all sporting events against Army, 901-683-39 (.567). Last year, Navy won the battle of the Star competitions, 14-7-1, as well as the overall head-to-head matchups, 18-12-1. Over the last 14 years, Navy has dominated the series, winning 64.0 percent (256-143-6) of the events, while earning a Star in 68.5 percent (193-87-6) of the Star battles. Last year, Navy won stars in (in chronological order): golf, women's cross country, sprint football, women's swimming & diving, men's swimming and diving, football, rifle, women's indoor track & field, gymnastics, men's basketball, wrestling, men's tennis, men's lacrosse, women's outdoor track & field.