March 21, 2012

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- George Washington won the doubles point and all but one of the singles matches to post a 6-1 victory over the Navy men's tennis team Wednesday afternoon at the USNA Tennis Courts in Annapolis.

"We faced a very good George Washington team today," said Navy head coach John Officer. "They are very talented. But we fought hard and had our chances. We just couldn't get over the top. Give a lot of the credit for that to George Washington."

George Washington (8-6), which won the Atlantic 10 Conference title a year ago, began the day by winning all three doubles matches from Navy (11-6). After Ulrik Thomson and Alexander van Gils combined to record an 8-2 win over Chris Kenney (So., Westlake Village, Calif.) and Marcus Rebersak (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) at No. 2 doubles, the Colonials secured the doubles point when their No. 1 tandem of Ugur Atalay and Francisco Dias won an 8-3 decision over Calvin Mark (Fr., Union City, Calif.) and Peter McDonald (Fr., Chapel Hill, N.C.).

The team score increased to 2-0 in favor of George Washington when Viktor Svensson tallied a 6-1, 6-1 win over Nicholas Gutsche (Jr., Sarasota, Fla.) at No. 5 singles. The margin between the teams was sliced in half thanks to McDonald posting a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Richard Blumenfeld at No. 3 singles. Dias, the No. 80 singles player in the country, defeated Rebersak, 7-5, 6-1, at No. 1 singles to give George Washington its third team point, then Leonardo Lapentti recorded a 6-4, 6-3 win over Blake Daniel (Fr., Overland Park, Kan.) at No. 4 singles to clinch the team victory for the Colonials.

Atalay defeated Mark by the score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and Mike Kachkar won outlasted Tyler Burnett (Fr., Fayetteville, Ga.), 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), at No. 6 singles in the remaining two matches contested on the day.

Navy will take to the road this weekend to open its Patriot League season. The Mids will first play Saturday at Colgate before playing at Bucknell on Sunday.

George Washington (8-6) def. Navy (11-6), 6-1
Doubles -- George Washington wins the doubles point (2-1-3)
1. Atalay, Ugur / Dias, Francisco (GW) def. Mark, Calvin / McDonald, Peter (NAVY) 8-3
2. Thomsen, Ulrik / van Gils, Alexander (GW) def. Kenney, Chris / Rebersak, Marcus (NAVY) 8-2
3. Lapentti, Leonardo / Svensson, Viktor (GW) def. Daniel, Blake / Gutsche, Nicholas (NAVY) 8-5
Singles (5-3-1-4-2-6)
1. #80 Dias, Francisco (GW) def. Rebersak, Marcus (NAVY) 7-5, 6-1
2. Atalay, Ugur (GW) def. Mark, Calvin (NAVY) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
3. McDonald, Peter (NAVY) def. Blumenfeld, Richard (GW) 6-3, 6-2
4. Lapentti, Leonardo (GW) def. Daniel, Blake (NAVY) 6-4, 6-3
5. Svensson, Viktor (GW) def. Gutsche, Nicholas (NAVY) 6-1, 6-1
6. Kachkar, Mike (GW) def. Burnett, Tyler (NAVY) 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)