ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's tennis team (15-13) began its spring break trip to Southern California by defeating UC Riverside (2-15) 5-2 and being edged by UC San Diego (8-8) 4-3 on Wednesday.  

Navy 5, UC Riverside 2
The Mids won two of the three doubles matches in Riverside to take a 1-0 lead. George Cutone and J.J. Etterbeek combined for a 6-2 victory over Lucas Ibarrondo and Lucas Mszyca at the No. 3 flight in the first match to finish.  The Highlanders won a 7-5 decision at No. 2 doubles, but Navy's No. 1 tandem of Lachlan Buckingham and Jason Kim defeated Andrew Lavine and Nosis Nedelcovici in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (9-7), to secure the point.

The Mids went on to win a trio of straight-set singles matches to tally the victory.  Etterbeek defeated Ivaylo Simeonov, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 3, Cutone won a 6-2, 6-3 decision over Mszyca at No. 4 and Kim beat Michael Chang, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) at No. 5.  

Aniketh Ayinala registered a 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8) win over Ibarrondo at the No. 1 flight to notch Navy's fifth point.

UCSD 4, Navy 3
After the Tritons won matches at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles, Navy earned a pair of victories in singles to take a 2-1 lead in a match played in La Jolla.  Herrick Legaspi defeated Oliver Worth, 6-2, 6-0, at the No. 1 flight, then Tommy Kim defeated Trevor Nguyen by the score of 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 singles.

UCSD bounced back with wins at Nos. 5 and 6 singles to regain the lead at 3-2.

That left two tightly contested matches to determine the outcome.

With the No. 4 singles match between Navy's Steve Nguyen and UCSD's Yaron Guberman deep in a third set, the No. 3 match featuring Navy's Jake Young and UCSD's Prathinav Chunduru went into a second-set tiebreaker after Chunduru won the first set by the score of 7-5.  Nguyen would defeat Guberman, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 during the early stages of the tiebreaker to knot the team score at 3-3.  

Chunduru held a 5-2 lead in the breaker, but Young tallied the ensuing three points to tie the score at 5-5. The players traded points to tie the frame at 6-6, and then did so again to make the score to 7-7. Young posted the next point to take an 8-7 lead, then won the ensuing point to win the breaker 9-7 and force a third set.

Chunduru won three-straight games to take a 4-1 lead in the third set.  Young narrowed the deficit to 4-2, but Chunduru won the next two games to win the match and give the Tritons the victory.

Up Next
Navy will play a pair of matches Friday at UC Irvine.  The Mids first will play the host Anteaters at 1 p.m. ET before facing Air Force at 6 p.m. ET.

Navy 5, UC Riverside 2
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point (3-2-1)
1. Buckingham, Lachlan / Kim, Jason (NAVY) def. Lavine, Andrew / Nedelcovici, Noris (UCR) 7-6 (9-7)
2. Pedroza, Jovan / Simeonov, Ivaylo (UCR) def. Ayinala, Aniketh / Spencer, Charlie (NAVY) 7-5
3. Cutone, George / Etterbeek, J.J. (NAVY) def. Ibarrondo, Lucas / Mszyca, Lucas (UCR) 6-2
Singles (not available)
1. Ayinala, Aniketh (NAVY) def. Ibarrondo, Lucas (UCR) 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8)
2. Lavine, Andrew (UCR) def. Spencer, Charlie (NAVY) 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 1-0 (10-6)
3. Etterbeek, J.J. (NAVY) def. Simeonov, Ivaylo (UCR) 6-4, 6-4
4. Cutone, George (NAVY) def. Mszyca, Lucas (UCR) 6-2, 6-3
5. Kim, Jason (NAVY) def. Chang, Michael (UCR) 6-4, 7-6 (7-3)
6. Pedroza, Jovan (UCR) def. Buckingham, Lachlan (NAVY) 6-4, 6-4

UCSD 4, Navy 3
Singles (1-2-5-6-4-3)
1. Legaspi, Herrick (NAVY) def. Worth, Oliver (UCSD) 6-2, 6-0
2. Kim, Tommy (NAVY) def. Nguyen, Trevor (UCSD) 6-4, 6-2
3. Chunduru, Prathinav (UCSD) def. Young, Jake (NAVY) 7-5, 6-7 (7-9), 6-2
4. Nguyen, Steve (NAVY) def. Guberman, Yaron (UCSD) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
5. Fourticq, Trey (UCSD) def. Garcia, Ethan (NAVY) 6-1, 7-5
6. Adamson, David (UCSD) def. Seo, Daniel (NAVY) 6-4, 6-4
Doubles -- UCSD wins the doubles point (3-2-1)
1. Kim, Tommy / Legaspi, Herrick (NAVY) def. Beceiro, Andrew / Chunduru, Prathinav (UCSD) 7-6 (8-6)
2. Fourticq, Trey / Nguyen, Trevor (UCSD) def. Nguyen, Steve / Young, Jake (NAVY) 6-3
3. Guberman, Yaron / Worth, Oliver (UCSD) def. Edwards, Kai / Giertz, Zach (NAVY) 6-0