March 24, 2010

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After dropping the doubles point, George Washington rallied to win five singles matches to post a 5-2 win over the Navy men's tennis team Wednesday afternoon at the Tose Family Tennis Center in Annapolis. The loss snaps a three-match winning streak for the Mids.

"It was a real battle out there between two teams that are favored to win their respective conference titles," said Navy head coach John Officer. "George Washington is a very talented team and I think their talent showed at key times this afternoon. But we want to play good teams because this is how we learn about ourselves. We learned some things today and we are going to take that into our next conference match on Saturday."

The match began with the Mids (7-10) winning the doubles point over the Colonials (5-8). George Washington won the first doubles match to be completed, an 8-3 win for Ugur Atalay and Erik Hannah over Nick Birger (Jr., Belleville, Ill.) and Ramsey Lemaich (Sr., Danville, Calif.) at No. 2 doubles. Navy's Zach Nicholson (So., Bowie, Md.) and Marcus Rebersak (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) evened things up at one win apiece when they posted an 8-4 triumph over Richard Blumenfeld and Yan Levinski at No. 3 doubles. That left the No. 1 doubles match between Navy's tandem of Owen Bullard (Jr., Concord, N.C.) and Nicholas Gutsche (Fr., Sarasota, Fla.) and George Washington's team of Chris Kushma and Arya Vayghan to decide matters.

The Colonials took an early 7-3 lead over the Mids, but they could never pick up the deciding eighth game of the pro set to win the match. Eventually, Navy rallied all the way back to win the match by the score of 9-7.

"We fought back really well to win at number one doubles to take the doubles point," said Officer.

The Navy lead grew to 2-0 when Gutsche recorded a 6-3, 6-1 win over Blumenfeld at No. 5 singles. However, that would be the last point of the day tallied by the Mids.

The Colonials quickly knotted the match at 2-2 when Hannah posted a 6-0, 6-4 win over Jeremy New (Jr., Glen Allen, Va.) at No. 3 singles and Vayghan won a 6-2, 6-4 decision against Matt Richmond (Fr., Kalamazoo, Mich.) at No. 6 singles. George Washington then went ahead, 3-2, after Levinski completed a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Rebersak at No. 2 singles, and clinched the team victory with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win by Atalay over Bullard at No. 1 singles.

The final match of the day to be completed saw Kushma outlast Nicholson, 5-7, 6-1, 1-0 (10-2), at No. 4 singles.

Navy will look to improve to 2-0 in conference play Saturday when the Mids play at Bucknell (10 a.m.), then will return home to Annapolis to face both Villanova (10:30 a.m.) and Howard (3:30 p.m.) Sunday. Weather permitting, both of those matches will be played outdoors on the grounds of the USNA.

George Washington 5, Navy 2
Doubles - Navy wins the doubles point (2-3-1)
1 - Bullard / Gutsche (N) def. Kushma / Vayghan, 9-7
2 - Atalay / Hannah (GW) def. Nick Birger / Ramsey Lemaich, 8-3
3 - Nicholson / Rebersak (N) def. Blumenfeld / Levinski, 8-4
Singles (5-3-6-2-1-4)
1 - Ugur Atalay (GW) def. Owen Bullard, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
2 - Yan Levinski (GW) def. Marcus Rebersak, 6-4, 6-4
3 - Erik Hannah (GW) def. Jeremy New, 6-0, 6-4
4 - Chris Kushma (GW) def. Zach Nicholson, 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-2)
5 - Nicholas Gutsche (N) def. Richard Blumenfeld, 6-3, 6-1
6 - Arya Vayghan (GW) def. Matt Richmond, 6-2, 6-4