Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's tennis team ran its winning streak to five matches in a row with a 5-2 victory over Villanova Thursday afternoon at the Tose Family Tennis Center in Annapolis. The win also improves Navy's record on the year to 7-1, while the Wildcats saw their mark drop to 1-2 on the young season.

"A lot of these matches," said Navy head coach Chris Garner, "a number of them we have had thus far, the levels are very comparable. So it is just going to be a couple of small things here or there. A score could be 5-2 or 6-1, but at the end of the day a couple of points here or there and that could be a 4-3 loss. So right now these guys are putting themselves in positions to make the difference in the small things and that is showing up in the win-loss column."

Navy lost just seven games in sweeping the three doubles matches to place the first team point on the scoreboard. It quickly became a 2-0 Navy lead when Calvin Mark (Sr., Union City, Calif.) lost just two games in defeating Mark Miller at No. 1 singles.

The Wildcats would win the ensuing two matches to pull even with the Mids. Chris Seitz posted a 6-2, 6-4 win over Blake Daniel (Sr., Overland Park, Kan.) at No. 2 singles, then Matt Phelps rallied after losing the first set to defeat Krishna Jana (So., Seabrook, Texas), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5 singles.

The Mids regained the lead after Walker Sims (Fr., Memphis, Tenn.) tallied a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory over Bradley Noyes at No. 3 singles, then earned the match-clinching fourth team point from a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win at the No. 4 flight by Aries Wong (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) over Tim Abbracciamento.

Closing out the proceedings was Navy's Tyler Burnett (Sr., Fayetteville, Ga.), who won the last four games of his 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 match against Michael Rosengren at No. 6 singles.

"Tennis in a way is individual in junior tennis and pro tennis, but in college it is a team effort, a team environment," said Garner. "These guys win together or they lose together. One guy could have won, but it could have been the guys off the court pushing him to keep believing and keep competing. It is more than just one person standing out there; it is the group pushing the entire team forward.

"The more matches they can play like this, the better prepared they will be when they leave the Academy. It is all about putting them in position where they will grow and mature through the competition and college athletics, and as long we can keep putting together a schedule where they will feel that pressure and be forced to fight through difficult things and encouraged to support one another, I feel this will be an enriching experience for them moving forward on the next stage of their life."

Navy will close out its season opening 10-match homestand with a pair of matches Sunday. The Mids will play host to Morgan State at 10 a.m. before taking on James Madison at 2 p.m.

Navy (7-1) def. Villanova (1-2), 5-2
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (2-1-3)
1. Daniel, Blake / Mark, Calvin (NAVY) def. Donaldson, Kelly / Miller, Mark (VILL) 6-2
2. Pecor, Thomas / Wong, Aries (NAVY) def. Noyes, Bradley / Seitz, Chris (VILL) 6-1
3. Majkic, Andrey / Tossavainen, Tyler (NAVY) def. Abbracciamento, Tim / Elmore, William (VILL) 6-4
Singles (1-2-5-3-4-6)
1. Mark, Calvin (NAVY) def. Miller, Mark (VILL) 6-1, 6-1
2. Seitz, Chris (VILL) def. Daniel, Blake (NAVY) 6-2, 6-4
3. Sims, Walker (NAVY) def. Noyes, Bradley (VILL) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3
4. Wong, Aries (NAVY) def. Abbracciamento, Tim (VILL) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
5. Phelps, Matt (VILL) def. Jana, Krishna (NAVY) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
6. Burnett, Tyler (NAVY) def. Rosengren, Michael (VILL) 7-5, 5-7, 6-3