ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– The Navy men's tennis team will open Patriot League Tournament play Friday at 8:30 a.m. when the top-seeded Mids (29-10, 8-0) face eighth-seeded Holy Cross (4-16, 1-6) in the first of four quarterfinal round matches to be contested on the day.  

The U.S. Naval Academy is playing host to the event that runs through Sunday.

Holy Cross advanced to the quarterfinal after posting a 4-0 victory over No. 9 Lafayette Thursday in a first-round match.  

Navy registered a 7-0 victory over Holy Cross when the teams met April 10 in Worcester, Mass.

The winner of the Navy-Holy Cross match will face either No. 4 Bucknell or No. 5 Boston U. Saturday at 10 a.m. in a semifinal round match.  The Bison and the Terriers will meet Friday at 10:15 a.m. in the quarterfinal round.  Bucknell defeated Boston U., 4-0, on April 3.

The quarterfinal round matches in the other half of the bracket has No. 3 Army playing No. 6 Colgate at 12:45 p.m. and No. 2 Lehigh taking on No. 7 Loyola at 3:15 p.m.  Army and Colgate did not face each other during the regular season while Lehigh defeated Loyola, 6-1, on March 19.  The winners of those two matches will play Saturday at 2 p.m. in the second semifinal.

The championship match is slated for a 1 p.m. start on Sunday.

Navy has won each of the last three Patriot League Tournaments that have been contested and has advanced to the final in each of the last nine editions of the event.

The championship match has been an Army-Navy pairing 12 times in the last 14 seasons (Army-Lehigh in 2011, Lehigh-Navy in 2013) and at least one of the service academy teams has advanced to the final each year since 2003.

Patriot League Tournament Schedule
Thursday, April 28 - First Round
1 p.m. - #8 Holy Cross def. #9 Lafayette, 4-0
Friday, April 29 - Quarterfinals
8:30 a.m. - #1 Navy vs. #8 Holy Cross
10:15 a.m. - #4 Bucknell vs. #5 Boston U. 
12:45 p.m. - #3 Army vs. #6 Colgate
3:15 p.m. - #2 Lehigh vs. #7 Loyola
Saturday, April 30 - Semifinals
10 a.m. - Navy / Holy Cross / Lafayette vs. Bucknell / Boston U.
2 p.m. - Lehigh / Loyola vs. Army / Colgate
Sunday, May 1 - Final
1 p.m. - Semifinal round winners