MEN'S TENNIS OPENS SEASON WITH SPLIT

Saturday, January 23

Richmond, Va.

9:00 a.m.

James Madison University

VCU

1/24/2010 12:30:00 AM | Men's Tennis

RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 23, 2009 - The James Madison men's tennis team opened its 2010 spring season by splitting a pair of matches at the VCU 4+1 Invitational in Richmond, Va. Saturday. JMU opened the day with a 5-0 loss against Virginia Commonwealth before rebounding with a 4-1 win over Navy.

The Dukes are now 1-1 overall and 0-1 in the CAA while the Rams jumped to 2-0 and 1-0 in conference. Navy opened its season a 0-1.

JMU fell behind early against the Midshipmen, losing the doubles point before bouncing back with a sweep in singles play. Freshman Stephen Hardy (Fairfax, Va./Robinson) paced the Dukes in singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Eddie Konrad, while sophomore Tommi Nissinen (Oulu, Finland/Kastellin lukio) dropped Matt Richmond 6-4, 6-0. Freshman Greg Vladimirsky (Coral Springs, Fla./Broward Virtual) recorded his first career dual match victory, defeating Marcus Rebersak 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and senior Mike Smith (Fairfax Station, Va./Robinson) completed the sweep with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win over Owen Bullard.

In the first match of the day, No. 46 VCU jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead after doubles play and never looked back, defeating the Dukes 5-0.

The Rams' Oscar Permen and Filip Svensson outlasted the Dukes' doubles team of Hardy and junior Yaroslav Voznenko (Kherson, Ukraine/Kherson Technical H.S.) 5-7, 6-2, 10-6.

In singles play, Smith pushed Thibaut Charoon to a tiebreaker in at no. 1 singles before falling 4-6, 6-3, 11-9. Vladimirsky made his dual match debut for Madison, losing to Tim Johannsen 6-2, 6-1.

The Dukes will conclude their weekend at the VCU 4+1 Invitational on Sunday at 9 a.m. against Georgetown.

VCU 5, JMU 0

Singles
1. Charoon (VCU) d. Smith (JMU), 4-6, 6-3, 11-9
2. Johannsen (VCU) d. Vladimirsky (JMU), 6-2, 6-1
3. Krocsko (VCU) d. Nissinen (JMU), 6-2, 6-0
4. Wennakoski (VCU) d. King (JMU), 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
Permen/Svensson (VCU) d. Hardy/Voznenko (JMU), 5-7, 6-2, 10-6

JMU 4, Navy 1
Singles