March 27, 2011
Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The seniors on the Navy men's tennis team won five of the six matches they participated in to spark the Mids to a 4-3 victory over Bucknell Sunday afternoon and evening at the Tose Family Tennis Center in Annapolis. The win was Navy's second league victory of the weekend (the Mids won a 5-2 contest over Colgate Saturday) and the win raised its record on the year to 14-8. Meanwhile, the Bison saw their record fall to 7-6 overall in this, their opening league match of the season.
"This was an excellent win for us," said Navy head coach John Officer. "It totally was `senior day' out there for us."
The lone match in which a member of Navy's Class of 2011 suffered a loss was in the first doubles match to be completed. That was the No. 3 contest in which senior Jeremy New (Glen Allen, Va.) and freshman Heyward Drayton (Valley Forge, Pa.) lost an 8-1 decision to Josh Katten and Kelly Morque. The Mids evened up the doubles results when the senior tandem of Nick Birger (Belleville, Ill.) and Owen Bullard (Concord, N.C.) posted an 8-3 victory over Anton Kovic and Evan Zimmer at No. 1 doubles. Navy then secured the doubles point when senior Mike Eisenberg (St. Louis, Mo.) and sophomore Nicholas Gutsche (Sarasota, Fla.) recorded an 8-6 win over Gregg Cohenca and Mark Malloy at the No. 1 flight.
The Bison tied the team score at one point apiece when Kyle Rosen posted a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Drayton at No. 4 singles. Navy soon built a 3-1 advantage as Bullard recorded a 6-3, 7-5 win over Cohenca at No. 1 singles and Birger won a 6-3, 6-1 contest over Gregory Maxson at No. 6 singles.
Bucknell sliced the lead in half when Katten posted a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Gutsche at No. 3 singles and then tied the score at 3-3 when Malloy won a 6-4, 6-0 match over Matt Richmond (So., Kalamazoo, Mich.) at No. 5 singles. That left the No. 2 singles match between New and Zimmer to decide the outcome of the match.
Zimmer posted a 6-3 victory in the first set, then New was serving while leading by the score of 4-3 and up a break of serve over Zimmer in the second set. Zimmer broke New to tie the set at 4-4, then held serve to take a 5-4 lead. New held serve to knot the score at 5-5, but Zimmer again held to take a 6-5 advantage. Serving for the second consecutive game to stay in the match, New held serve again to force a tiebreaker. New took a 4-2 lead in the first-to-seven-point tiebreaker, but the score would soon be tied a 5-5. With the eyes of everyone in the building on the match, New tallied back-to-back points to win the tiebreaker by the score of 7-5 and force a third set.
New held serve to start the third set, then broke Zimmer to take a 2-0 lead. New not only held serve again (3-0), he broke Zimmer at love to take a 4-0 advantage. With momentum on his side, New held serve for a fifth consecutive game to build a 5-0 lead in the set. Zimmer held serve to stay in the match (5-1), then broke New to climb to within 5-2. It was at that point Zimmer requested a medical timeout due to cramping. It was the second consecutive day in which New forced his singles opponent to call a medical timeout for cramping.
Zimmer went back to serve, but quickly fell behind love-40. After he tallied one point to make the score 15-40, New recorded the next point to end the match and give the Mids the overall victory.
"Our seniors all exude mental toughness," said Officer. "Nick and Owen played well as a doubles team and then had good singles wins, and Mike has stepped into the doubles lineup this weekend and picked up two good wins for us. Jeremy was in a tight second set in singles, but pulled it out and then won going away in the third set.
"All four of our seniors exude the heart of a champion. When we can get all of the players on our team to have the characteristics and guts of a champion that the seniors do, we can have a shot at winning another championship. But we are not there yet; we need everyone to have the mental fortitude that the seniors do and until that happens then our winning the championship is up in the air for us."
Navy will take to the road for its next three matches, a stretch that starts with a Wednesday afternoon contest at Richmond.
Navy (14-8, 2-0) def. Bucknell (7-6, 0-1), 4-3
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (3-1-2)
1 - Nick Birger / Owen Bullard (Navy) def. Anton Kovic / Evan Zimmer, 8-3
2 - Mike Eisenberg / Nicholas Gutsche (Navy) def. Gregg Cohenca / Mark Malloy, 8-6
3 - Josh Katten / Kelly Morque (Bucknell) def. Heyward Drayton / Jeremy New, 8-1
Singles (4-1-6-3-5-2)
1 - Owen Bullard (Navy) def. Gregg Cohenca, 6-3, 7-5
2 - Jeremy New (Navy) def. Evan Zimmer, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
3 - Josh Katten (Bucknell) def. Nicholas Gutsche, 6-4, 6-1
4 - Kyle Rosen (Bucknell) def. Heyward Drayton, 6-4, 6-3
5 - Mark Malloy (Bucknell) def. Matt Richmond, 6-4, 6-0
6 - Nick Birger (Navy) def. Gregory Maxson, 6-3, 6-1
