2/10/2003

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Georgetown University Men?s Tennis team fell to Maryland on Sunday, 6-1, at the College Park Tennis Center in College Park, Md.

Georgetown earned its point at second singles, where senior Marc Lohser (Woodbury, N.Y. / Syosset) showed his veteran poise in gutting out a three set win over Scott Peters, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. The Hoyas came close to earning another point at sixth singles. Freshman Eric Conrad dropped the first set to Rory Theis, 6-1, but came back to win the second set, 7-5. Since Maryland had already ensured its victory, the third set was decided by a tiebreaker. Conrad came up on the short end, losing the tiebreaker 10-8, and losing the match 6-1, 5-7, 10-8.

The remaining Georgetown singles players fought had but failed to earn a point. At first singles, junior Dennis Cravedi (Bethesda, Md. / Georgetown Prep) fell to Troy Demers, 7-5, 6-2. Chris Belelieu (Hinsdale, Ill. / Dr. Phillips) dropped his third singles match to Chris Chiu, 6-2, 6-1. Sophomore Eric Bildman (Brookline, Mass. / Roxbury Latin School) lost at fourth singles to the Terps? Dave Reichsfeld, 6-3, 6-2; while at fifth singles Hoya sophomore Ryan Peisel (Savannah, Ga. / Savannah Country Day) dropped a close one to Pierre Rudder, 7-6, 6-3.

Maryland earned the doubles point to complete its 6-1 victory, but the Hoyas were able to win one of the three doubles matches. At second doubles, Cravedi and Peisel teamed up to defeat Maryland?s Rudder and Baxter, 8-5. The Hoyas? first doubles tandem of Lohser and Bildman nearly secured the doubles point for Georgetown, but eventually fell 8-6 to Chiu and Peters. At third doubles, Belelieu and Conrad lost to Demers and Reichsfeld, 8-1.

The loss dropped the Hoyas to a 5-7 dual match record for the season. The men will return to action on Saturday, February 22, when they travel to Charlottesville, Va., for a dual match with UVa. The match begins at 1 p.m.