10/3/2003
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Georgetown hosted the 27th Annual DC Metropolitan Tennis Championships Thursday Sept. 25-Monday Sept. 29 with 12 teams from the Mid-Atlantic region participating. Teams competing from the District included the Hoyas, George Washington, Howard, American and Catholic. The state of Maryland was represented by the Univ. of Maryland, Towson, Mt. St. Mary's College, Loyola College and UMBC. Virginia was represented by Mary Washington College and George Mason.
The Hoyas had their hands full with the field that included 2003 NCAA qualifiers American, UMBC and Mary Washington, but they showed much promise with several outstanding performances. In the Flight A Singles draw, sixth seeded Dennis Cravedi (Bethesda, Md./ Georgetown Prep) advanced to the quarterfinals where he was defeated by tournament finalist Josef Novotny from UMBC. Freshman Scott Faust (Miami, Fla./ Ransom Everglades) also advanced to the A Singles quarterfinal where he fell to American?s two-time tournament finalist Tusha Garg. In the B Flight Singles draw, freshman and sixth seed Kevin Killeavy (Indian Harbor Beach, Fla./ Melbourne Central Catholic) advanced to the quarterfinal where he fell in a grinding battle against Dave Reichsfeld of UMd.
Several other Hoyas turned in solid singles efforts during the tournament. Ryan Peisel (Chicago, Ill./ Savannah Country Day School (Ga.)) defeated Grant Mayhew of Towson 6-2,6-1 in the first round of the A Singles draw, Eddie Carver (Virginia Beach, Va./ Norfolk Academy) defeated Steven Wenzel of Mary Washington 3-6,6-3,10-8 in the first round of the B Singles draw, Erik Bildman (Brookline, Mass./ Roxbury Latin School) downed Nate Hathaway of Mary Washington 5-7,7-6,10-7 in the consolation of the B draw, and Alex Wright (Lexington, Mass./ University of St. Andrew's (Scotland)) defeated John Halbach of Catholic in the first round of the C Singles draw before falling to Mt. St. Mary's #1 singles Drew Arbeiter 6-0,2-6,10-8.
In doubles play, the Hoyas started slowly on Saturday but built momentum performing well on Sunday. Faust and Killeavy won a tough first round against UMBC's Baraldi and Keller before falling to AU's #2 doubles team of Rivero and Fliegelman. Hoyas Cravedi and Bildman downed Howard's #1 team of Carter and Thomas 8-6 in consolation play. Peisel and teammate Eric Conrad (Gloucester, Mass./ St. John's Prep) defeated Bainton and Vogel of George Mason 8-6 in their first round match before losing to eventual tournament champions, Ryan and Hathaway of Mary Washington.
The Hoyas will next compete at the Towson 4+1 Invitational on Friday Oct. 3 and Saturday Oct. 4 in Baltimore, Md. On Friday in group play, the Hoyas will face Monmouth at 12 noon and BIG EAST rival Villanova at 4:00 pm. On Saturday the Hoyas will take on host Towson and then hopefully find themselves in the championship final that afternoon against the group winner of Loyola, 2003 NCAA qualifier UMBC and Mt. St. Mary's.
