SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Gavin Segraves (Sr., Charlottesville, Va.) overcame a 5-0 third-set deficit to win his No. 2 singles match in a tiebreaker and send the Navy men's tennis team past Bucknell, 4-3, on Saturday and into Sunday's championship match in the Patriot League Tournament.  The top-seeded Mids (22-19) survived against the fifth-seeded Bison (15-8) in a semifinal round match played at the Drumlins Tennis Club in Syracuse, N.Y.

The Mids were able to thwart the upset bid by the Bison, but second-seeded Army was not as fortunate as they fell, 4-2, to third-seeded Boston U. in the second semifinal. The Mids and the Terriers will play Sunday at noon in the tournament final.

The first match of the season between Navy and Bucknell also was a close one.  Bucknell won the doubles point from Navy in that April 8 match played in Lewisburg, Pa, but the Mids won a pair of three-set singles matches on its way to defeating the Bison, 5-2.

"Bucknell is an improved team from when we faced them two weeks ago," said Navy head coach Chris Garner.

Navy won the doubles point in today's match to take the 1-0 advantage.

Luke Garner (So., Arnold, Md.) and Sashan Panyan (Jr., Lutherville, Md.) didn't drop a game in defeating Nick Mueller and Michael Owen at No. 1 doubles.  

There were no breaks of serve through nine games of the No. 2 doubles match between Navy's Finn Garner (Sr., Arnold, Md.) and Nathan Nguyen (Fr., McLean, Va.) and the Bucknell tandem of Oscar Bain and Amar Tahirovic.  That gave the Mids a 5-4 lead, then Navy tallied the break of serve it needed to win the match, 6-4.

The remaining match at No. 3 doubles was tied at 5-5 when play was stopped.  Christian Pumpelly (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.) and Segraves were knotted with Ink Chen and Brendan McDonald in that match.

"Sasha and Luke gave us a match quickly in doubles," said Garner, "but the other two matches were deadlocked.  Finn and Nathan were able to get the break and close out the set."

Each team won the first set in three singles matches.  The first match to finish was at No. 6 singles where Navy's Aniketh Ayinala (Fr., Charlotte, N.C.) defeated Chen, 6-3, 6-1.  That made the score 2-0 in favor of the Mids, but the Bison quickly tied the match at 2-2.  Bucknell's first point came at No. 5 singles where Bain defeated J.J. Etterbeek (Fr., Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), 6-1, 6-3, then its second point was recorded by Owen when he defeated Luke Garner, 6-3, 7-5, at No. 3 singles.

Panyan won the first set of his No. 1 singles match against Amar Tahirovic 6-3, but found himself trailing in the second set by scores of 3-2, 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5.  He held serve to send the frame into a tiebreaker.  Panyan had match point at 6-5 in the beraker, then Tahirovic had set point at 7-6.  Panyan bounced back and had another match point at 8-7.  This time he converted the opportunity to win his match and give the Mids their third point of the day.

"Aniketh and Sasha got off to quick starts in their matches and were able to capitalize on those leads to win in straight sets," said Garner.

It was a see-saw match at No. 4 singles where Navy's Herrick Legaspi (Fr., Sacramento, Calif.) won the first set in a tiebreaker, 9-7, then Bucknell's McDonald won the second set by the score of 6-1.  McDonald held a 4-1 lead in the third set, but Legaspi won the next three games to tie the score at 4-4.  McDonald held serve (5-4), then so too did Legaspi (5-5).  McDonald again held serve (6-5) and then broke Legaspi to close out the match and tie the score at 3-3.

That left Segraves battling Mueller at No. 2 singles.

Mueller won the first set by the score of 7-5, but Segraves answered with a 6-4 second-set win to send the seniors into a third set.  Mueller held serve three times and broke Segraves twice to jump out to a 5-0 lead at the start of the stanza.  Segraves responded by winning the next six games to take a 6-5 advantage.  He served for the match with a 40-30 lead, but lost both that point and the next one to force a tiebreaker.

Mueller won three of the first four points in the breaker, then Segraves took a 5-4 lead.  The players exchanged the next two points to take Segraves to match point with a 6-5 lead.  Mueller held his first serve to extend the match, then Segarves recorded a break on Mueller's second serve to regain the serve with a 7-6 lead.  Mueller's return of serve by Segraves went into the net to give the Mids the victory.

"Neither Herrick nor Gavin were in the best positions to win their matches," said Garner.  "Herrick picked up his game and Gavin began to control the baseline in his match.  Herrick had some opportunities, but McDonald played well to win the third set in their match.

"Gavin fought all of the way back from being down 5-0 to winning in a tiebreaker.  It was great tennis as both he and Mueller came up with quality play going back-and-forth the entire tiebreaker.  Gavin just kept playing to win and it paid off on his third match point."

Navy will be playing in the championship match for the 11th year in a row, 15th time in 16 seasons and the 22nd time in school history.  The Mids will be trying to claim their fifth-straight title, seventh in 11 years, 11th in 16 seasons and 15th overall.

Boston advances to the championship match for the first time since it joined the Patriot League for the 2013-14 academic year.  The Mids defeated the Terriers, 4-2, on March 26.

Navy 4, Bucknell 3
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (1-2)
1. Garner, Luke / Panyan, Sasha (NAVY) def. Mueller, Nick / Owen, Michael, 6-0
2. Garner, Finn / Nguyen, Nathan (NAVY) def. Bain, Oscar / Tahirovic, Amar, 6-4
3. Pumpelly, Christian / Segraves, Gavin (NAVY) vs. Chen, Ink / McDonald, Brendan, 5-5, unfinished
Singles (6-5-3-1-4-2)
1. Panyan, Sasha (NAVY) def. Tahirovic, Amar, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7)
2. Segraves, Gavin (NAVY) def. Mueller, Nick, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6)
3. Owen, Michael (BUCK) def. Garner, Luke, 6-3, 7-5
4. McDonald, Brendan (BUCK) def. Legaspi, Herrick, 6-7 (7-9), 6-1, 7-5
5. Bain, Oscar (BUCK) def. Etterbeek, J.J., 6-1, 6-3
6. Ayinala, Aniketh (NAVY) def. Chen, Ink, 6-3, 6-1