March 11, 2014

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- An arduous stretch of playing four matches over the course of four days came to an end Tuesday for the Navy men's tennis team with the Mids posting a 7-0 victory over Morgan State at the Tose Family Tennis Center.

Navy (11-5) secured the doubles point from Morgan State (1-6) with victories at the Nos. 1 and 2 flights. Navy's No. 2 tandem of Blake Daniel (Jr., Overland Park, Kan.) and Calvin Mark (Jr., Union City, Calif.) began the proceedings by posting a 8-1 win over Jannick Tash and Evan Ward. Soon thereafter, Morgan State's Dmitriy Borodkin and Duk Young-Park recorded an 8-2 win over Krisha Jana (Fr., Seabrook, Texas) and Tyler Tossavainen (Fr., Fleming Island, Fla.) at No. 3 doubles.

"I thought we played very well at No. 2 doubles," said Navy head coach John Officer. "The last time out (Sunday) against Monmouth we struggled to hold serve, but tonight we held serve convincingly. We are always a threat to break serve at No. 2 doubles because they have very good returns of serve. We were completely outplayed at No. 3. Their No. 1 player was at the flight, and that made that team very strong against our two freshmen. They are a little untested for us."

The No. 1 match between Navy's Austin Jones (So., Wilmington, N.C.) and Thomas Pecor (Fr., Houston, Texas) and Morgan State's team of Joshua Abraham and Ty Abraham went down to the wire as neither team was able to consistently hold serve. In the end, Jones and Pecor won the match by the count of 8-6 to give the Mids the doubles point.

"We have a very good No. 1 team," said Officer, "but we didn't come out ready to go. We got behind and had to fight our way through. We got some lucky points to win. The lesson for those guys is you've got to come out ready to play against everyone on our schedule."

In singles, both Daniel at the No. 3 flight and Jones at No. 4 won their respective matches without dropping a game. Jana was nearly as effective in his 6-2, 6-0 win over Tash at No. 5 singles, while Mark posted a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ward at No. 2.

Both Tossavainen and Pecor saw their matches extended into a 10-point tiebreaker used in place of a complete third set. Tossavainen would defeat Borodkin, 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8) at No. 6 singles, with Pecor emerging with a lengthy 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 1-0 (10-6) victory over Young-Park at No. 1 singles.

"I was very pleased with our singles," said Officer.

After a busy four days, Navy is now off from competition until playing host to Villanova on March 20.

"This schedule was to prepare us for the league championship," said Officer. "I think it did a good job of that. We had to play four matches in four days. It was hard, it was tiring. The pros don't complain when they have a five-set match; they just come out the next day and play hard and that's what I expect our guys to do. You have a tough day, you come out and be ready to play hard. That's why Becca (Grizzard) deserves a lot of credit. We are in shape. She does all of our fitness, and we are in shape."

Navy's five losses this year are against four nationally-ranked teams and another, East Carolina, that is on the verge of appearing in the rankings.

"Our goals for the rest of the season are to win 23 matches, which would break the school record for wins in a year, beat Army and win the Patriot League.

"Our philosophy in scheduling is to play at least five national level teams. We have played the Nos. 1, 11, 45 and 55 teams in the country. If you want to be ready at championship team, you have got to stretch yourself. We got beat up against (No. 1) Virginia and (No. 11) North Carolina. We got beat very badly, but we learned from it and are a better team for it."

Navy (11-5) def. Morgan State (1-6), 7-0
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (2-3-1)
1. Jones, Austin / Pecor, Thomas (NAVY) def. Abraham, Joshua / Abraham, Ty (MORGAN), 8-6
2. Daniel, Blake / Mark, Calvin (NAVY) def. Tash, Jannick / Ward, Evan (MORGAN), 8-1
3. Borodkin, Dmitriy / Young-Park, Duk (MORGAN) def. Jana, Krishna / Tossavainen, Tyler (NAVY), 8-2
Singles (3-4-5-2-6-1)
1. Pecor, Thomas (NAVY) def. Young-Park, Duk (MORGAN), 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 1-0 (10-6)
2. Mark, Calvin (NAVY) def. Ward, Evan (MORGAN), 6-3, 6-2
3. Daniel, Blake (NAVY) def. Abraham, Ty (MORGAN), 6-0, 6-0
4. Jones, Austin (NAVY) def. Abraham, Joshua (MORGAN), 6-0, 6-0
5. Jana, Krishna (NAVY) def. Tash, Jannick (MORGAN), 6-2, 6-0
6. Tossavainen, Tyler (NAVY) def. Borodkin, Dmitriy (MORGAN), 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8)