April 10, 2010

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's tennis team won multiple close matches to post a 6-1 victory over the Richmond Saturday afternoon at the Naval Academy Tennis Courts.

Included among the interested spectators at the match were the players and coaches from Army's program. The Midshipmen and the Black Knights will face each other Sunday at 1 p.m. on The Yard in the annual Star Match between the two service academies.

"I thought we played very well today against a good Richmond team," said Navy head coach John Officer. "We limited practice time this week and I think having that extra energy helped us. Richmond very nearly beat George Washington, a team that beat us, so today's match was a sign of improvement for us."

Navy (12-10) began the day by sweeping the three doubles matches from Richmond (10-11) to win the doubles point. After Eddie Konrad (So., The Woodlands, Texas) and Jeremy New (Jr., Glen Allen, Va.) won an 8-3 decision over Rafael Arana and Justin Baker at No. 3 doubles, an 8-6 win by Navy's No. 2 team of Nick Birger (Jr., Belleville, Ill.) and Ramsey Lemaich (Sr., Danvillle, Calif.) over Will Minter and Dylan Schrode secured the doubles point for the Mids. Navy's No. 1 tandem of Owen Bullard (Jr., Belleville, Ill.) and Nicholas Gutsche (Fr., Sarasota, Fla.) completed the sweep with its 8-5 win over Jesse Feder and A.J. Nelson.

"We started slow in the doubles again," said Officer. "We were down a break of serve at both two and three, but did a nice job in coming back to win both matches."

The Spiders tied the match up at one point apiece when Feder recorded a 7-5, 6-1 win over Bullard at No. 1 singles. From there, however, the Mids would win the remaining five matches with four of those victories coming in straight sets.

Zach Nicholson (So., Bowie, Md.) gave the Mids a 2-1 lead thanks to his 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) win over Schrode at No. 4 singles. Next to finish was the No. 6 singles match where Matt Richmond (Fr., Kalamazoo, Mich.) won a 7-5, 6-1 decision over Baker. Tallying the decisive fourth team point for Navy was Marcus Rebersak (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) with his 6-1, 0-6, 6-3 win over A.J. Nelson at No. 2 singles.

A 7-6, (7-2), 6-4 win by Gutsche over Arana at No. 5 singles gave the Mids their fifth point of the day, then New won a 7-5, 7-5 contest over Minter at No. 3 singles to make the final score 6-1.

Navy (13-10) def. Richmond (10-12)
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (finish order: 3-2-1)
1 - Bullard / Gutsche (N) def. Feder / Nelson, 8-5
2 - Nick Birger / Ramsey Lemaich (N) def. Minter / Schrode, 8-6
3 - Eddie Konrad / New (N) def. Arana / Baker, 8-3
Singles (finish order: 1-4-6-2-5-3)
1 - Jesse Feder (R) def. Owen Bullard, 7-5, 6-1
2 - Marcus Rebersak (N) def. A.J. Nelson, 6-1, 0-6, 6-3
3 - Jeremy New (N) def. Will Minter, 7-5, 7-5
4 - Zach Nicholson (N) def. Dylan Schrode, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)
5 - Nicholas Gutsche (N) def. Rafael Arana, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4
6 - Matt Richmond (N) def. Justin Baker, 7-5, 6-1