April 3, 2011

Final Stats

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Lehigh narrowly won the doubles point and a trio of close singles matches to record a 5-2 victory over the Navy men's Sunday at the Lewis Tennis Center in Bethlehem, Pa.

"All of the credit goes to Lehigh," said Navy head coach John Officer. "They played extremely well. We have been piecing things together with pins and needles, but the bubble burst for us today. Lehigh played an outstanding match. We just couldn't do it today."

The two teams split the first two doubles matches to be completed, which meant the doubles point would come down to the final match. Navy's (15-8, 3-1) No. 1 team of Nick Birger (Sr., Belleville, Ill.) and Owen Bullard (Sr., Concord, N.C.) had a great effort in posting an 8-6 win over Collin Laffey and Troy List, a Lehigh tandem that had spent several weeks this spring with a national ranking. Lehigh (12-5, 3-1) evened up the results when its No. 3 team of Mark Goldberg and Ryan Krueger won an 8-5 decision over Heyward Drayton (Fr., Valley Forge, Pa.) and Jeremy New (Sr., Glen Allen, Va.).

That left the match at the No. 2 flight between Navy's Mike Eisenberg (Sr., St. Louis, Mo.) and Nicholas Gutsche (So., Sarasota, Fla.) and Lehigh's Andrew Krentz and Matt Savran to decide matters. The match would go into a tiebreaker where the Mountain Hawks posted a 7-3 victory over the Mids to give Lehigh the doubles point.

The Lewis Tennis Center features only four courts, so the matches at the Nos. 1 through 4 flights were the first to be contested. Three of those matches were stretched to three sets, with the remaining match decided in straight sets but by just one break of serve in each of the sets.

Lehigh extended its lead to 2-0 when List won a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 match over Bullard at No. 1 singles, then the margin soon became 3-0 as Goldberg posted a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Gutsche at No. 4 singles. However, Navy climbed right back into the match with wins at Nos. 2 and 3 singles. Drayton placed Navy's first point on the scoreboard thanks to his 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-1 win over Savran at No. 3 singles, with New quickly following with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Laffey at No. 2 singles.

Needing to win just one of the remaining two matches to pick up the victory, Lehigh would win both of the contests. The Mountain Hawks would clinch the overall team decision when Krueger tallied a 6-2, 6-1 win over Matt Richmond (So., Kalamazoo, Mich.) at No. 5 singles. Rounding out the results on the day was Krentz winning a 6-3, 6-4 decision over Birger at No. 6 singles.

Navy will close the home portion of its season Wednesday when Navy plays host to Georgetown (2:30 p.m.), then will travel to West Point, N.Y., to face Army on Saturday.

Lehigh (12-5 / 3-1) def. Navy (15-9, 3-1), 5-2
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (1-3-2)
1 - Nick Birger / Owen Bullard (Navy) def. Collin Laffey / Troy List, 8-6
2 - Andrew Krentz / Matt Savran (Lehigh) def. Mike Eisenberg / Nicholas Gutsche, 9-8 (7-3)
3 - Mark Goldberg / Ryan Krueger (Lehigh) def. Heyward Drayton / Jeremy New, 8-5
Singles (1-4-3-2-5-6)
1 - Troy List (Lehigh) def. Owen Bullard, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
2 - Jeremy New (Navy) def. Collin Laffey, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3
3 - Heyward Drayton (Navy) def. Matt Savran, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-1
4 - Mark Goldberg (Lehigh) def. Nicholas Gutsche, 7-5, 7-5
5 - Ryan Krueger (Lehigh) def. Matt Richmond, 6-2, 6-1
6 - Andrew Krentz (Lehigh) def. Nick Birger, 6-3, 6-4