April 6, 2011

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After dropping the doubles point, the Navy men's tennis team won four singles matches to rally for a 4-3 victory over Georgetown Wednesday afternoon at the USNA Tennis Courts. The victory was the fourth for the Mids in their last five matches and raises Navy's record on the season to 16-9. Meanwhile, Georgetown fell to 6-10 on the year with the loss.

"This was a good win for us," said Navy head coach John Officer. "We still are down a few parts, but it was nice to be able to come away with a win today against a good Georgetown team. They beat us last year, so this was a good turnaround."

The two teams started the day by playing a trio of close doubles matches. Georgetown won the first match to be completed, an 8-4 victory by Charlie Caris and Bryan Miller over Mike Eisenberg (Sr., St. Louis, Mo.) and Nicholas Gutsche (So., Sarasota, Fla.) at No. 2 doubles. Navy's No. 1 tandem of Nick Birger (Sr., Belleville, Ill.) and Owen Bullard (Sr., Concord, N.C.) evened the results up at one win apiece with its 8-5 win against Andrew Bruhn and Tim Walsh. The Hoyas would earn themselves the doubles point when Casey Distaso and Brian Ward won an 8-6 decision over Jeremy New (Sr., Glen Allen, Va.) and Marcus Rebersak (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) at No. 3 doubles.

Birger quickly knotted the team score by recording a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Caris at No. 1 singles. Bruhn promptly returned the lead to the Hoyas with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 2 singles over Rebersak. Matt Richmond (So., Kalamazoo, Mich.) then tied the score again when he tallied a 6-2, 6-1 win over Rafael Notario at No. 6 singles.

Navy took its first lead of the day when New posted a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Miller at No. 3 singles, but the cushion was immediately erased when Distaso recorded a 7-5, 6-4 win over Gutsche at No. 4 singles. The Mids would win the match when Birger closed out Walsh in a pair of tiebreakers. Birger won the first set tiebreaker by the score of 7-3 and the second set tiebreaker by the count of 7-2.

The Mids will conclude their regular season Saturday when Navy travels to West Point to face Army. The match will begin at 1 p.m.

"Army is a very good team," said Officer. "They beat us for the Star last season and then we beat them in the final of the Patriot Tournament. We know we are going to have to play very well against them Saturday."

Navy (16-9) def. Georgetown (6-10), 4-3
Doubles -- Georgetown wins the doubles point (2-1-3)
1 - Nick Birger / Owen Bullard (N) def. Andrew Bruhn / Tim Walsh, 8-5
2 - Charlie Caris / Bryan Miller (G) def. Mike Eisenberg / Nicholas Gutsche, 8-4
3 - Casey Distaso / Brian Ward (G) def. Jeremy New / Marcus Rebersak, 8-6
Singles (1-2-6-3-4-5)
1 - Owen Bullard (N) def. Charlie Caris, 6-1, 6-3
2 - Andrew Bruhn (G) def. Marcus Rebersak, 6-4, 6-2
3 - Jeremy New (N) def. Bryan Miller, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1
4 - Casey Distaso (G) def. Nicholas Gutsche, 7-5, 6-4
5 - Nick Birger (N) def. Tim Walsh, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2)
6 - Matt Richmond (N) def. Rafael Notario, 6-2, 6-1