March 13, 2011

Final Stats

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Nationally-ranked Penn State posted a 6-1 victory over the Navy men's tennis team Sunday afternoon in University Park, Md. The No. 70 Nittany Lions improved to 7-8 on the year with the win, while the Mids fell to 11-7 on the season with the loss.

"It was kind of a mixed bag of results for us today," said Navy head coach John Officer. "We were facing another good, nationally-ranked team, so the experience of playing a team like Penn State will help us when we get to our Patriot League season."

The Nittany Lions started the doubles portion of the meet quickly as by Chris Hasyn and Welnetz recorded an 8-2 victory over Heyward Drayton (Fr., Valley Forge, Pa.) and Jeremy New (Sr., Glen Allen, Va.) at the No. 3 flight. Penn State secured the doubles point at No. 1 doubles when Russell Bader and Eddie Bourchier won an 8-5 decision over Nick Birger (Sr., Belleville, Ill.) and Owen Bullard (Sr., Concord, N.C.). However, Navy's No. 2 tandem of Nicholas Gutsche (So., Sarasota, Fla.) and Marcus Rebersak (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) combined for a 8-7 (7-1 in the tiebreaker) victory over the team of C.J. Griffin and Jason Lee.

"That was a good win for Nick and Marcus," said Officer. "They are a new team, so this was a good result to see out of them."

The match was played at the Penn State Indoor Tennis Center, which features only four courts. That meant the matches at Nos. 1-4 singles would be contested first. Penn State increased its advantage to 2-0 when Bader lost just one game in posting a straight set win over New at No. 3 singles. The team score became 3-0 after Lee won a 6-2, 6-1 match over Bullard at No. 1 singles, then Penn State clinched the overall victory when Welnetz recorded a 6-3, 6-0 win over Gutsche at No. 4 singles.

The No. 2 singles match featured Rebersak, who is ranked 13th in the ITA Atlantic Region, taking on Bouchier, who is ranked 14th in the region. Bouchier would narrowly win a 6-4, 7-5 contest to give Penn State its fifth team point of the day. The penultimate match to be finished saw Penn State's Harry Seaborn record a 6-2, 6-2 win over Matt Richmond (So., Kalamazoo, Mich.) at No. 6 singles.

The final match was a close one between Drayton and Chris Young. Drayton would win in straight sets, but both sets would be extended into tiebreakers. He would win the first set by the score of 7-2 and the second set by the count of 7-3.

"Heyward played fantastic today," said Officer.

Navy will next be in action Thursday when the Mids play at Bethune-Cookman.

Penn State (7-8) def. Navy (11-7), 6-1
Doubles -- Penn State wins the doubles point (3-1-2)
1 - Russell Bader / Eddie Bourchier (P) def. Nick Birger / Owen Bullard, 8-5
2 - Nicholas Gutsche / Marcus Rebersak (N) def. C.J. Griffin / Jason Lee, 8-7 (7-1)
3 - Chris Hasyn / Bryan Welnetz (P) def. Heyward Drayton / Jeremy New, 8-2
Singles (3-1-4-2-6-5)
1 - Jason Lee (P) def. Owen Bullard, 6-2, 6-1
2 - Eddie Bouchier (P) def. Marcus Rebersak, 6-4, 7-5
3 - Russell Bader (P) def. Jeremy New, 6-1, 6-0
4 - Bryan Welnetz (P) def. Nicholas Gutsche, 6-3, 6-0
5 - Heyward Drayton def. Chris Young, 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3)
6 - Harry Seaborn (P) def. Matt Richmond, 6-2, 6-2