Feb. 24, 2012

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Georgetown's Andrew Dottino rallied to win a third-set tiebreaker that gave the Hoyas a 4-3 victory over the Navy men's tennis team Friday evening at the Tose Family Tennis Center in Annapolis.

In an example of just how close the overall match was, four of the six singles matches played between the teams featured at least one tiebreaker.

"This was a great college tennis match," said Navy head coach John Officer. "A match like today is what we practice for. I'm really proud of this team. Georgetown has been on a roll lately with a 6-1 with over Old Dominion and a near victory at William & Mary."

Georgetown (6-3) won the first two doubles matches to be completed to secure the doubles point. Dottino and Alex Tropiano posted an 8-5 win over Nicholas Gutsche (Jr., Sarasota, Fla.) and Marcus Rebersak (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) at No. 2 doubles before John Brosens and Casey Distaso combined for an 8-2 victory over Blake Daniel (Fr., Overland Park, Kan.) and Chris Kenney (So., Westlake Village, Calif.) at No. 3 doubles.

Navy's No. 1 tandem of Calvin Mark (Fr., Union City, Calif.) and Peter McDonald (Fr., Chapel Hill, N.C.) recorded a 9-7 win over Andrew Bruhn and Charlie Caris in the remaining match.

The Hoyas took a 2-0 lead when Bruhn tallied a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Rebersak at No. 1 singles. Mark sliced the margin down to just one point as he recorded a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win over Shane Korber at No. 2 singles, but a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 win by Caris over McDonald at No. 2 singles took the Georgetown lead back to two points at 3-1.

Gutsche would pull the Mids to within 3-2 when he recorded a 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 win over Distaso at No. 6 singles, then the match was evened up at three points apiece when Daniel won a 7-6 (7-0), 3-6, 7-5 decision over Brian Ward at No. 5 singles.

All eyes then turned to court four where Navy's Tyler Burnett (Fr., Fayetteville, Ga.) was in the latter stages of his match against Dottino. Dottino had won the first set in a tiebreaker (8-6), but the duo was in a third set due to Burnett winning the second set by the score of 6-3. Burnett would take a 5-4 lead in the final set but, just like McDonald who also led 5-4 in the third set, he couldn't close out the match. Dottino would first tie the set up at 5-5 before taking a 6-5 advantage. Burnett promptly won the next game to even the set up again and force another tiebreaker.

Dottino won the first two points of the tiebreaker before Burnett ran off the next four points to take a 4-2 lead. The two traded the next two points before Dottino won the ensuing four points to win the tiebreaker by the score of 7-5.

"We lost the doubles point, but kept battling and battling to get back into the match," said Officer. "We just came up a little short. Tyler had the lead, but then he showed great character in fighting back and taking a lead in the tiebreaker.

"I hope we can look back on this match as a turning point in our season. We just need to get a little better at finishing off matches. We need to play with controlled aggression when we are in a position to end matches. At times today we were either under aggressive or over aggressive in our play when in those situations."

Navy will be back on the Tose Family Tennis Center courts Saturday for a noon match against George Mason.

Georgetown (6-3) def. Navy (7-4), 4-3
Doubles -- Georgetown wins the doubles point (2-3-1)
1. Mark, Calvin / McDonald, Peter (NAVY) def. Bruhn, Andrew / Caris, Charlie (GU) 9-7
2. Dottino, Andrew / Tropiano, Alex (GU) def. Gutsche, Nicholas / Rebersak, Marcus (NAVY) 8-5
3. Brosens, John / Distaso, Casey (GU) def. Daniel, Blake / Kenney, Chris (NAVY) 8-2
Singles (1-3-2-6-5-4)
1. Bruhn, Andrew (GU) def. Rebersak, Marcus (NAVY) 7-5, 6-3
2. Caris, Charlie (GU) def. McDonald, Peter (NAVY) 6-2, 3-6, 7-5
3. Mark, Calvin (NAVY) def. Korber, Shane (GU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3
4. Dottino, Andrew (GU) def. Burnett, Tyler (NAVY) 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5)
5. Daniel, Blake (NAVY) def. Ward, Brian (GU) 7-6 (7-0), 3-6, 7-5
6. Gutsche, Nicholas (NAVY) def. Distaso, Casey (GU) 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3