ARNOLD, MD (February 1, 2000) -- The Georgetown men's tennis team traveled to Arnold, MD to face the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy in their opening match of the 2000 spring season. Playing at the Big Vanilla Racquet Club in a Saturday evening match, the Navy squad defeated the Hoyas 7-0. Georgetown's season record now stands at 2-3.
In the doubles competition, the Hoyas started slowly, falling behind early at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. The No. 2 doubles team of freshmen Troy Crichlow (Wilton, Mass./Milton) and Mark Lohser (Woodbury, N.Y./Syosset) captured an early break of serve, but could not capitalize as Navy regained the break and went on to win seven of the last eight games to score an 8-4 victory. The No. 1 doubles team of Nick Sklavounos (So., Waterford, Conn./Waterford) and Andre Benjamin (So., New York, N.Y./Fieldston) made up their early deficit to extend the match to 6-6. But Navy's tandem of Mitchell Koch and Jim McHugh, ranked 50th nationally, won the last two games to close-out the match, 8-6.
At No. 3 doubles, the Hoyas' Dave Boyer (Sr., Winston-Salem, N.C./Forsyth Country Day) and Ken Jordan (So., Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) fell behind 3-0, but picked up their level of play and found themselves all square at 6-6. Again, Navy stepped up their efforts and the Hoyas were unable to respond effectively, losing the match 8-6.
Having won the doubles competition to stake themselves to a 1-0 lead, a veteran Navy team tore into the young Hoyas in the singles competition. Freshman Jay Brupbacher (Sparta, N.J./P. John XXII) was defeated by Navy's Chris McGrath 6-1, 6-0 at No. 6 singles.
Sklavounos did all he could to battle Navy's Koch, the East Region's #1 ranked player and the nation's No. 76, but Koch won 6-2, 6-1. Lohser was the next Hoya to fall as the Midshipman's McHugh won 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 4 singles position. GU's Jordan raised his level of play in his second set against Navy's Zafar Fisher, but he fell 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 3 singles position. At No. 2, Benjamin fell to Navy's Joe McCauley, 6-2, 6-4. The only Hoya to break through and extend his match was GU's senior captain Beau Brewer (Little Rock, Ark./Little Rock Central), who fought back to capture his second set 7-5 after falling 6-3 in the first set to Grant Carona. The third set, which went to a tiebreak saw Brewer fall, 10-4, making his match final 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(4).
The team's next competition features two matches on Friday, February 11, at the Virginia Commonwealth University 4 + 1 Invitational Tournament. At that event the Hoyas will face Norfolk State at 4:00 p.m. and later that evening Radford University at 8:00 p.m. Both teams defeated the Hoyas one year ago.
Hoya Player W/L OPPONENT SCHOOL SCORE POS Match RECORDBenjamin/Sklavounos L Koch-McHugh Navy 8-6 1D Dual #5 2-5Crichlow/Lohser L McCauley-Fisher Navy 8-4 2D Dual #5 2-4Boyer/Jordan L Wilcox-Carona Navy 8-6 3D Dual #5 2-4Sklavounos L Koch,Mitch Navy 6-2,6-1 1S Dual #5 4-6Benjamin L McCauley,Joe Navy 6-2,6-4 2S Dual #5 1-5Jordan L Fisher,Zafar Navy 6-1,6-2 3S Dual #5 1-5Lohser L McHugh,Jim Navy 6-2,6-2 4S Dual #5 2-3Brewer L Carona,Grant Navy 6-3,5-7,7-6(4) 5S Dual #5 2-4Brupbacher L McGrath,Chris Navy 6-1,6-0 6S Dual #5 1-3Brewer/Grajny L Salomon/McGrath Navy 8-4 4D Dual #5 Exh.Brupbacher/Gaffney L Waguesbach/Marshall Navy 5D Dual #5 Exh.Gaffney L Salomon,Ben Navy 8-6 7S Dual #5 Exh.Grajny W Santillo,Doug Navy 8-3 8S Dual #5 Exh.
