ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's tennis team (18-10) will open its Patriot League season Sunday when it plays host to Boston University (11-7) at 9 a.m. at the Tose Family Tennis Center. The team's second match of the day against No. 62 St. John's (12-4) has been canceled.
The match between Navy and the Red Storm will begin at 1:30 p.m. if the weather allows the match to be contested outdoors on the USNA Tennis Courts. Should conditions force the match indoors, it will begin after the conclusion of the noon Navy-Bucknell women's match.
Links to live results from both matches can be found at NavySports.com.
Navy Recap (18-10, 0-0 Patriot League)
Sunday's matches will be the first for Navy in two weeks. The Mids last took to the courts for matches on March 10 when they split a doubleheader at Richmond, losing the opener by the score of 4-1 before winning the second match by the count of 4-3. The latter result improved Navy's record on the year to 5-0 in matches with the final score of 4-3.
St. John's is the eighth team Navy will play that has been in the national rankings at least once this spring. The Mids have previously faced nationally-ranked teams Dartmouth, Delaware, Drexel, NJIT, Penn (two matches), Western Michigan and William & Mary. Those seven teams account for eight of Navy's 10 losses this year. Additionally, Navy will play at Monmouth, which is currently ranked 74th nationally, on March 31.
Individually,
Sasha Panyan has posted a team-high 10 wins in singles this season (10-4) with
Herrick Legaspi entering the week with nine victories (9-4). Leading all doubles teams is the tandem of Legaspi and
Nathan Nguyen with eight wins (8-4). Three teams have compiled seven victories this year.
Boston U. (11-7, 0-0 Patriot League)
The Terriers will play at George Mason on Saturday before facing the Mids on Sunday.
Boston U. has posted a 3-3 record in matches decided by the final score of 4-3. One of those defeats came to St. John's. The Terriers also have lost matches to another pair of nationally-ranked teams in Dartmouth (4-0, 6-1) and Harvard (7-0).
The teams met twice last season, with the Mids recording a 4-2 victory during the regular season and a 4-0 win in the championship match of the Patriot League Tournament.
Navy holds a 10-2 lead in overall matches played in the series, which includes a 3-1 record in matches played in Annapolis. The Mids have tallied a combined 8-2 record against the Terriers over the last decade when the two programs have been fellow members of the Patriot League. The Navy advantage is only 3-2, however, in league regular season matches played between the teams.
St. John's (12-4) -- Match Canceled
The Red Storm are in the national rankings for the fifth-straight week. They now are ranked 62nd after entering the rankings at No. 50 on Feb. 20.
Included among their results are wins over Dartmouth (4-3), Boston U. (4-3) and Drexel (4-2), with their all of their losses coming to teams that have been in the national rankings this season in Cornell (6-1), Arizona (6-1), Texas (7-0) and Yale (4-1).
St. John's posted a 20-6 record last season and was the No. 2 seed in the Big East Conference Tournament. The Red Storm won three matches in the tournament to win the title and advance to the NCAA Tournament where they lost in the first round to Stanford.
Sunday's match will be the first in the series between the teams.
St. John's is the second of four teams from the Big East Conference Navy will face the season. The Mids have defeated Villanova and will play host to Xavier on March 31 and Georgetown on April 7.
