Tuesday, 03/13/2012

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The George Washington men’s tennis team returned to head-to-head competition for the first time in a month on Sunday, March 11, and took down Florida Atlantic, 5-2.

The Colonials (4-6), who had a March 3 match at UNC Wilmington canceled, picked up wins in 4-of-6 singles matches and 2-of-3 doubles matches to earn the 5-2 win over the Owls (8-5).

“We had a lot of great performances for our first outdoor match of the season,” said head coach Greg Munoz. “We had a four-week break from our last match, and everyone really stepped up to play.”

The No. 2 doubles duo of senior Richard Blumenfeld and junior Alexander van Gils opened the match with a 9-7 victory over FAU’s Robert Dubuque and Chris Janssen. In the No. 3 match, junior Leonardo Lapentti and sophomore Viktor Svensson took down Sean Bacha and Boris Bogomolov, 8-5. Freshman Francisco Dias, who is ranked No. 76 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, and senior Ugur Atalay dropped their No. 1 doubles match to Taylor Albrecht and Will Neuner, 8-6.

Atalay bounced back to earn a No. 2 singles victory over Chris Janssen by set scores of 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Van Gils won his third-flight match over Neuner, 6-2, 6-2, and Blumenfeld downed Robert Dubuque in the No. 4 match, 7-5, 6-4.

Lapentti picked up a three-set No. 5 singles victory over Garrett Betsarakis by scores of 6-2, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8). Dias, the 76th-ranked singles player in the ITA, dropped his No. 1 match to Albrecht, 6-2, 6-1, and Svensson fell to Bogomolov in three sets, 2-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-4) in No. 6 action.

GW will play three matches during Spring Break week beginning with a Wednesday, March 14 duel against Troy in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., at 9 a.m.

George Washington 5, Florida Atlantic 2
Singles
No. 1 – Taylor Albrecht (FAU) def. #76 Francisco Dias (GW) – 6-2, 6-1
No. 2 – Ugur Atalay (GW) def. Chris Janssen (FAU) – 6-3, 7-6 (7-4)
No. 3 – Alexander van Gils (GW) def. Will Neuner (FAU) – 6-2, 6-2
No. 4 – Richard Blumenfeld (GW) def. Robert Dubuque (FAU) – 7-5, 6-4
No. 5 – Leonardo Lapentti (GW) def. Garrett Betsarakis (FAU) – 6-2, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8)
No. 6 – Boris Bogomolov (FAU) def. Viktor Svensson (GW) – 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4)

Doubles
No. 1 – Albrecht/Neuner (FAU) def. Atalay/Dias (GW) – 8-6
No. 2 – Blumenfeld/van Gils (GW) def. Dubuque/Janssen (FAU) – 9-7
No. 3 – Lapentti/Svensson (GW) def. Bacha/Bogomolov (FAU) – 8-5