March 19, 2008

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Penn rallied after dropping the doubles point to Navy by winning the first four completed singles matches to record a 4-3 victory over the Midshipmen, Wednesday afternoon at the Tose Family Tennis Center in Annapolis.

"It was a great college tennis match," said Navy head coach John Officer. "There was a lot of intensity displayed by both teams."

Navy swept the three doubles matches from the Quakers to take a 1-0 lead. First off of the courts was the No. 3 match where Navy's Nick Birger (Fr., Belleville, Ill.) and Jason Hill (Jr., Marietta, Ga.) posted an 8-6 win over Justen Roth and Adam Schwartz. The Mids earned the doubles point with a victory at the No. 2 flight where Alex James (Sr., Visalia, Calif.) and Ramsey Lemaich (So., Danville, Calif.) won a 9-7 decision over Jeffrey Karsh and Joseph Lok. Completing the sweep was Navy's No. 1 duo of Nate Nelms (Jr., St. Mary's, Ga.) and Johnny Waters (Jr., Papillion, Neb.), who picked up a 9-7 win over Brandon O'Gara and Jason Pinsky.

The Quakers then won a straight-set singles match and outlasted the Mids in a trio of three-set matches to record the overall victory.

Schwartz put the Quakers on the scoreboard with his 6-1, 6-4 win over Lemaich at No. 4 singles. Pinsky, the ninth-ranked singles player in the Northeast Region, dropped the first set of his No. 1 singles match to Nelms, 6-4, but won the second and third set by scores of 6-2 and 6-1, respectively, to give Penn a 2-1 advantage.

Hill dropped the first set of his No. 3 singles match to Lok in a tiebreaker (7-4), but evened the match at one set apiece with a 6-2 win in the second set. Lok would jump out to a 5-2 lead in the third set before eventually winning the match by the score of 6-4.

Waters won the opening set of his No. 2 singles match against Justin Fox by the score of 6-3, but dropped the last two sets, 6-3 and 6-4, to allow Fox to record Penn's fourth point of the day.

The Mids won the remaining two singles matches, with James recording a 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 win over O'Gara at No. 5 singles and Owen Bullard (Fr., Concord, N.C.) rallying to post a 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 win over Alex Vasin at No. 6 singles.

The doubles matches began at 2:30 p.m., but the last singles match did not finish until nearly 6:30 p.m.

"We played excellent in doubles and gave ourselves chances to win the match at numbers one, two and three singles, but couldn't get the job done," said Officer.

Penn, who has shared the last two Ivy League titles, defeated Navy 7-0 last year in Philadelphia.

"We didn't fare too well against Penn last year, so today's match showed a marked improvement by us from a year ago," said Officer.

Navy will attempt to bounce back from the loss Saturday when the Mids play host to Richmond. Weather permitting, the match will be played outdoors on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy and will begin at 12 Noon.

Penn (8-7) def. Navy (12-7), 4-3
Doubles competition -- Navy wins the doubles point (match finish order: 3-2-1)
1. Nelms / Waters (N) def. O'Gara / Pinsky, 9-7
2. James / Lemaich (N) def. Jeffrey Karsh / Lok, 9-7
3. Nick Birger / Hill (N) def. Justen Roth / Schwartz, 8-6
Singles competition (match finish order: 4-1-3-2-6-5)
1. Jason Pinsky (P) def. Nate Nelms, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
2. Justin Fox (P) def. Johnny Waters, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
3. Joseph Lok (P) def. Jason Hill, 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-4
4. Adam Schwartz (P) def. Ramsey Lemaich, 6-1, 6-4
5. Alex James (N) def. Brandon O'Gara, 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3
6. Owen Bullard (N def. Alex Vasin, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5