Jan. 22, 2009

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's tennis team will look to continue its strong start to the 2009 season this weekend when the Midshipmen play host to Georgetown and St. Francis (N.Y.) Saturday at the Tose Family Tennis Center. The Mids will first face the Hoyas at 12 Noon before taking on the Terriers in a 5 p.m. match.

There is no admission charge for any Navy home tennis match.

The Mids and the Hoyas have had several close matches in recent years. After Georgetown won a 5-2 decision over Navy two years ago, the Mids won a 6-1 decision against the Hoyas last year in a match where the final score was very misleading. After narrowly winning the doubles point that day, the Mids won a trio of three-set singles matches to emerge with the overall victory. This included a 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 7-6 (11-9) victory by Jason Hill (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) over Adam Gross at No. 3 singles.

Hill is one of six current Mids who took part in the match against the Hoyas last year, while Gross is one of four returning Georgetown players who faced Navy.

Additionally, Georgetown was ranked 12th and 14th, respectively, in the Northeast Region over the last two years, while Navy was ranked 13th in the same region in 2007 and 12th in the 2008 ranking.

The Hoyas opened their season last weekend by splitting a pair of matches to Richmond (W, 4-1) and VCU (L, 5-0) at the VCU 4+1 Invitational.

St. Francis will be opening its season Saturday against the Mids. The lone previous match between the Mids and the Terriers took place eight years ago when Navy put together a 4-1 victory in Annapolis.

"We are looking forward to the Georgetown match," said Navy head coach John Officer. "We won last year and they beat us two years ago, so we expect a hard fought match. We will need to compete hard for every point in order to be successful. We hope to have a lot of support from the community."

Like Georgetown, Navy began its 2009 campaign last weekend in Richmond, Va., at the VCU 4+1 Invitational. After tallying a 3-2 victory over Campbell, the Mids won a 3-1 decision over Temple. Two of Navy's three losses were three-set decisions.