Road Trip for Navy Tennis Team Begins with Close Loss

Hill and Nelms upset 48th ranked UNCG doubles team

	Nate Nelms

March 2, 2007

Final Stats

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A three-day swing of matches in the state of North Carolina for the Navy tennis team began with a tough 4-3 loss to UNC Greensboro, Friday afternoon at the UNCG Tennis Courts.

"It was disappointing," said Navy head coach John Officer of the narrow setback. "We played very well in doubles to win the doubles point and were right there in singles with a chance to win the match. We just didn't get it done."

The Mids won two of the three doubles matches to earn the lone available doubles point. Highlighting the performance of the Navy doubles tandems was Jason Hill (So., Marietta, Ga.) and Nate Nelms (So., St. Mary's, Ga.) recording an 8-3 win over Andrey Bubnov and Arsel Kumdereli, the 48th-ranked doubles team in the country.

In singles, Navy picked up straight set wins at the Nos. 4 and 5 flights, while the Spartans posted straight set victories at Nos. 1, 2 and 6. That left the No. 3 singles match between Navy's Adrian Lai (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.) and UNC Greensboro's Arsel Kumdereli to decide the overall outcome.

Kumdereli won the opening set, 7-5, but then Lai posted a 6-3 win in the second set to even the match. Lai then took a 5-2 lead in the third set and served for the match up two breaks of serve. He would drop the next five games, however, allowing Kumdereli to escape with a 7-5 victory in the set and give the Spartans the victory.

"Adrian gave it his all and played his heart out," said Officer.

The loss drops Navy to 5-6 on the year, while UNC Greensboro improves to 4-5 with the victory.

Navy will remain in the state over the next two days for matches Saturday at No. 39 North Carolina State and Sunday at No. 17 North Carolina.

UNC Greensboro 4, Navy 3
Doubles -- Navy wins the doubles point
#1 Hill/Nelms (N) def. Bobnov/Kumdereli, 8-3
#2 Kahl/Lai (N) def. Adeimy/Redelinghuts, 8-6
#3 Befus/Steinhorn (G) def. James/Lemaich, 8-6

Singles
#1 Andrey Bubnov (G) def. Nate Nelms, 6-3, 6-3
#2 Martin Redelinghuys (G) def. Jason Hill, 7-6 (2), 6-2
#3 Arsel Kumdereli (G) def. Adrian Lai, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5
#4 Ramsey Lemaich (N) def. Ian Conchar, 6-4, 7-5
#5 Stanley Kahl (N) def. William John, 6-3, 6-0
#6 Jason Steinhorn (G) def. Alex James, 6-4, 6-4