HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison returned home after a lengthy road trip and cruised to a 6-1 men's tennis victory against Navy on Sunday at Hillside Courts.
The Dukes (9-6) evened the all-time series to 6-6 with their fifth straight victory against the Midshipmen (17-15). JMU also moved to 4-1 at home this spring.
JMU won the doubles point in comeback fashion and rolled to five straight-set triumphs in singles play.
Going 2-0 with wins in both doubles and singles were
Esteve Agusti and
Aurelien Schmitt, who teamed for a court one doubles win and earned victories on the top two singles courts.
The Dukes gained the early lead with wins in two of three doubles bouts. On court one, Agusti and Schmitt took down Ethan Garcia and Jason Kim, 6-4. After Navy notched a 6-3 win on court two, the JMU tandem of
Harrison Lee and
Francisco Sinopoli reeled off three straight games to defeat Kai Edwards and Daniel Seo, 6-4, on court three.
In singles play, JMU took the opening set on all six courts.
Zach Fleishman doubled JMU's lead on court five after taking down Edwards by a 6-0, 6-2 margin. Moments later, Schmitt finished off a dominant court two win with a 6-1, 6-1 victory versus Kim.
The clinching point came on court six, courtesy of
Gur Libal who downed Seo, 6-1, 6-2. JMU extended the lead to 5-0 on court four, where
Ryan Morgan rolled in the second for a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Garcia.
Agusti made it a 6-0 match after storming back in the first set and controlling the pace in the second, as he upended George Cutone, 7-6 (1), 6-1. Agusti trailed 4-1 in the opening frame before winning 12 of the final four games, including the first-set tiebreak.
Navy got on the board with a comeback win on court three. Steve Nguyen, who also won in doubles play, rallied past Sinopoli with a super tiebreaker win, taking the bout by scores of 3-6, 7-6 (2), 10-7.
JMU returns to action on Friday, March 27 when it hosts UNC Asheville in a 10 a.m. match at Hillside Courts.