The 13th-ranked Navy squash team (12-4) will play its regular-season finale at home on Sunday when it plays host to No. 15 Franklin & Marshall (12-5). Action is slated to begin at 2:00 pm at the Halsey Field House International Squash Courts.
Admission is free to all Navy squash matches. A reminder to fans planning on attending the match, vehicular access to the Naval Academy is limited to those with a Department of Defense identification card. It is suggested that fans park downtown and walk through the main gate. Please note that a government issued identification card must be carried and presented at the gate.
Thank You, Seniors
Navy will recognize its four senior members - team captain
Senen Ubina,
John Kacergis,
Jamie Kjorlien and Dylan - on Sunday.
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Ubina has flourished at the Academy since his arrival in the summer of 2015. He enters the weekend with a 73-30 (.709) career record and needs just one win to earn his way onto the Mids' all-time top 10 wins list. Ubina owns the second-most wins on the team this winter, posting an 11-4 mark among the No. 2 (3-0), No. 3 (5-1) and No. 4 (3-3) positions. He will graduated having won three U.S. Intercollegiate Doubles Championships (2015, 2017, 2018), while he and his sister, Maria Elena, have won a combined eight titles and are the winningest siblings in squash doubles history. A three-time Commandant's List selection, Ubina's service assignment is Marine Corps Ground.
Kacergis will make his final appearance at Halsey Field House having put together a 7-0 career record, including a 3-0 mark this season. He is one of four brothers who have either graduated from (Jim '15 and Bill '16) or currently attend (Michael '20) the Academy. All four were/are squash players. Upon graduation this May, Kacergis will serve aboard the USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) docked out of Norfolk, Va.
While Kjorlien has put together an 8-7 record this season primarily playing the No. 6 spot, he will go down in the Navy record books among the top 20 winningest players. He owns a 63-31 (.670) career mark, needing just one win to tie former teammate and captain Randy Beck who stands 18th. Kjorlien's service assignment is Navy Pilot.
Sweeney has also etched his name into the Navy record book, having posted a 68-29 (.701) record and ranks 13th on the Mids' all-time wins list. He is just win shy of tying former teammate Colin Barry for 12th. The three-year starter owns a 10-6 record this season, seeing most of his action at the No. 5 spot. An excellent student, Sweeney owns a 3.24 grade-point average in Operations Research. He has been named to the Commandant's List every semester and the Dean's List in each of the last three semesters. He will serve as a Naval Flight Officer following graduation.
The Ladder
1.
Jack Lentz (So, Philadelphia, Pa.), 2.
Michael Kacergis (Jr, Malvern, Pa.), 3.
Owen Davis (Jr, Rydal, Pa.), 4.
Senen Ubina (Sr, Greenwich, Conn.), 5.
Dylan Sweeney (Sr, New York, N.Y.), 6.
Jamie Kjorlien (Sr, Greenwich, Conn.), 7.
Ryan York (Fr, Hunt Valley, Md.), 8.
Ben Korn (Fr, Stevenson, Md.), 9.
Danny Finnegan (So, Williamstown, Mass.), 10.
John Kacergis (Sr, Malvern, Pa.), 11.
Gus Prager (Fr, New York, N.Y.), 12.
Thomas Prim (Fr, Gladwyne, Pa.), 13.
Will Hyer (Fr, Bridgehampton, N.Y.).
More on the Mids
• Navy has faced a challenging schedule over the second half of the season. After opening the year 11-1, the Mids have stumbled in three of their last four matches - win vs. Williams (5-4), George Washington (7-2), Cornell (7-2) and Drexel (7-2).
• Five players have reached double-digit wins for the Mids, including junior
Michael Kacergis and freshman
Ben Korn who own mirroring 12-3 records as Navy's No. 2 and 9 players, respectively.
Jack Lentz and
Senen Ubina have produced 11-4 marks at No. 1 and No. 4, while
Dylan Sweeney stands 10-6.
• Freshman
Ryan York, meanwhile, needs just one win to add his name to the double-digt wins list.
More on Franklin & Marshall
• Head coach Gavin Jones has led the Diplomats to a 12-5 record and a No. 15 ranking. F&M will play a pair of matches against Johns Hopkins and Dickinson on Saturday before making the day trip to Annapolis on Sunday.
• Of their five losses, three have been by 5-4 decisions (Williams, Virginia twice), while also dropping a 6-3 decision to St. Lawrence and a 9-0 loss to Penn in their opener.
• The Diplomats had their four-match winning streak - Cornell (5-4), Middlebury (5-4), MIT (5-4) and George Washington (5-4) - snapped a week ago by Virginia (5-4) in the championship match of the Mid-Atlantic Championship played in Charlottesville.
• Junior Shams Abbas has played 13 matches at the No. 1 spot and amassed a 5-8 record, while second-year standout Sanjay Jeeva has posted a 14-3 record sharing time at No. 1 (4-0) and No. 2 (10-3).
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The Series
• Longtime rivals, Navy and Franklin & Marshall will meet for the 59th time since the series began in 1968.
• While Navy boasts a 36-22 advantage in the series, the Diplomats have won nine of the last 12 meetings. The Mids have won two in a row against F&M, including a thrilling 5-4 victory in Annapolis two years ago.
• F&M's last win in Annapolis was on Feb. 8, 2015, when the Diplomats scored a 6-3 win over the Mids.
Up Next
• Navy will play in the annual College Squash Association Team Championship slated for Feb. 15-17 in New Haven, Conn.
### Go Navy ###