April 2, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Navy tennis team dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision to American on Sunday afternoon. The Mids rallied to tie the match at three apiece, but couldn't hold on for the deciding fourth team point, in falling to the Eagles. Navy drops to 10-9 with the loss and 2-2 in the Patriot League.

"It was a heartbreaking loss for us, but we will bounce back from it. The atmosphere felt like a championship-type match and it will only help us down the road," said Navy head coach John Officer. "We had two match points in the deciding match and just couldn't hold on. We will learn from this loss and play hard next weekend against Lehigh."

The Mids dropped all three doubles matches, but began their rally in singles play.

At No. 6 singles, Alex James scored an impressive 6-2, 6-3, victory over Josh Levitz to tie the overall score at 1-1.

"Alex played very well today," said Officer. "He controlled the pace of the entire match and really had a strong performance."

After Nate Nelms dropped his match at No. 1 singles, Johnny Waters again tied the match at 2-2 with a 6-4, 6-3, victory at No. 4 singles. American regained the lead with a victory at No. 2 singles, before Adrian Lai won his match at No. 3, 6-2, 6-3, setting up a wild finish at No. 5 singles.

Stanley Kahl won the first set, 6-3, over Jeffrey Schnell, but dropped the final two sets, including 7-6 (8-6 in the tiebreaker) in the third set. Kahl led the tiebreaker, 6-4 with two match points, but couldn't hold on to the advantage, and Schnell iced the match away with the last four points.

The Mids will host Lehigh next Saturday at the Naval Academy tennis courts, beginning at noon.

Doubles:
1. Frayssinoux/Vazquez (AU) def. Nelms/James (NAVY) 8-4
2. Proisy/Singer (AU) def. Kahl/Lai (NAVY) 8-7
3. Ben Weltman/Levitz (AU) def. Waters/Hill (NAVY) 8-6

Singles:
1. Nicolas Frayssinoux (AU) def. Nate Nelms (NAVY) 7-6, 6-0
2. Juancarlo Vazquez (AU) def. Jason Hill (NAVY) 6-1, 7-6
3. Adrian Lai (NAVY) def. Sebastien Proisy (AU) 6-2, 6-3
4. Johnny Waters (NAVY) def. Andrew Singer (AU) 6-4, 6-3
5. Jeffrey Schnell (AU) def. Stanley Kahl (NAVY) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6
6. Alex James (NAVY) def. Josh Levitz (AU) 6-2, 6-3

# GO NAVY #