April 2, 2010

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Jeremy New (Jr., Glen Allen, Va.) won a pair of matches on the day to help the Navy men's tennis team post a 6-1 victory over Lehigh Friday afternoon at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

The doubles point came down to the last of the three matches to be completed. After Navy's Eddie Konrad (So., The Woodlands, Texas) and New combined for an 8-5 win at No. 3 doubles over Andrew Krentz and Ryan Krueger, Lehigh knotted the score up at one win apiece when Collin Laffey and Troy List posted an 8-6 win over Owen Bullard (Jr., Concord, N.C.) and Nicholas Gutsche (Fr., Sarasota, Fla.) at No. 1 doubles.

Navy's No. 2 doubles tandem of Nick Birger (Jr., Belleville, Ill.) and Ramsey Lemaich (Sr., Danville, Calif.) nearly let a 7-4 lead slip away to Leland Richardson and Matt Savran, but the Mids were able to serve out the match to complete an 8-6 victory and give Navy the all-important doubles point.

"We started a little slow in doubles, but we did a nice job of getting things righted," said Navy head coach John Officer.

Navy then posted straight-set victories in each of the initial three singles matches to be completed to clinch the overall victory. Bullard picked up Navy's second team point of the day with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 win over List at No. 1 singles, New won a 6-4, 6-0 decision over Richardson at No. 3 singles and Nicholson won his No. 4 singles match against Savran by the score of 6-3, 6-4.

Lehigh's Laffey claimed the lone point of the day for the Mountain Hawks with his 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 win over Rebersak at No. 2 singles.

After Matt Richmond (Fr., Kalamazoo, Mich.) proceeded to record Navy's fifth point of the afternoon with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Krentz at No. 6 singles, Gutsche put together a remarkable rally to come away with a victory over Krueger at No. 5 singles.

Krueger won the first set of the match by the score of 6-2, then, after winning each of the first five games of the second set, was serving with a 40-Love lead. Gutsche rallied to not only win the game, but also win the next four games to tie the score at 5-5. The players would soon find themselves in a tiebreaker, which Gutsche won by the score of 7-3. Gutsche would then win the third set by the score of 6-2 to cap Navy's day.

"Owen had a nice win at number one against an all-league player in Troy List," said Officer. "Both Zach and Jeremy had good wins and then Gutsche had a remarkable comeback.

"I thought today was another match where our challenging schedule has really helped us. It really toughened us up and taught us to bear down in key situations."

Navy improves to 3-0 in the Patriot League and 11-10 on the season with the win, while Lehigh falls to 1-2 in league play and 7-9 on the year with the loss. The Mids will be back in action at the USNA Saturday at 10:30 a.m. when Navy plays host to Lafayette.

Navy (11-10 / 3-0) def. Lehigh (7-9 / 1-2), 6-1
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (match finish order: 3-1-2)
1. Laffey / List (L) def. Bullard / Gutsche, 8-6
2. Nick Birger / Ramsey Lemaich (N) def. Richardson / Savran, 8-6
3. Eddie Konrad / New (N) def. Krentz / Krueger, 8-5
Singles competition (match finish order: 1-3-4-2-6-5)
1. Owen Bullard (N) def. Troy List, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
2. Collin Laffey (L) def. Marcus Rebersak, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
3. Jeremy New (N) def. Leland Richardson, 6-4, 6-0
4. Zach Nicholson (N) def. Matt Savran, 6-3, 6-4
5. Nicholas Gutsche (N) def. Ryan Krueger, 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
6. Matt Richmond (N) def. Andrew Krentz, 6-0, 2-6, 6-3