MEN'S TENNIS SPLITS A PAIR OF SATURDAY MATCHES

Saturday, February 13

Fredericksburg, Va.

6:00 p.m.

James Madison University

M. Washington

2/14/2010 4:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

FREDERICKSBURG, Va., Feb. 13, 2010 - The James Madison men's tennis team split a pair of matches at the University Tennis Center in Fredericksburg, Va. on Saturday. The Dukes opened with 4-3 loss to East Carolina before rebounding with a 6-1 win over Division III Mary Washington.

JMU moved its record to 2-3, while ECU improved to 6-1 and UMW dropped to 0-2.

After ECU opened Saturday's round robin with a 6-1 win of its own over Mary Washington, the Dukes and Pirates battled to a tight 4-3 finish.

ECU took the crucial doubles point, winning two of the three matches to open up a 1-0 lead. JMU's No. 1 doubles team of senior Mike Smith (Fairfax Station, Va./Robinson) and junior Matt King (Lorton, Va./Robinson) picked up the Dukes' lone doubles victory, defeating Stian Tvedt and Henrik Skalmerud 8-4. The Pirates won both No.2 and 3 doubles by identical 8-5 scores.

In singles play, Madison got wins at Nos. 1, 2 and 5 to keep things close but was unable to pick up the clinching fourth point. Sophomore Tommi Nissinen (Oulu, Finland/Kastellin lukio) picked up JMU's easiest victory, cruising to a 6-1, 6-4 win over John Scmitt. Freshman Greg Vladimirsky (Coral Springs, Fla./Broward Virtual) dropped Stephen Whitwell 7-5, 6-4 in No. 2 singles, while Smith downed Jaroslav Horvath 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in No. 1 singles.

Freshman Stephen Hardy (Fairfax, Va./Robinson) forced Skalmerud into a tiebreaker in set two but could not overcome an early deficit, ultimately falling 6-0, 7-6(4).

In their second match of the day, the Dukes came out strong sweeping doubles play to control an early 1-0 lead. Smith and King improved to 2-0 on the day with an 8-3 win over Andrew Frisk and Evan Goff in No. 1 doubles, while Hardy combined with junior Yaroslav Voznenko (Kherson, Ukraine/Kherson Technical School) for an 8-0 win over Riley Baver and Sam Wichlin at No. 3.

JMU put things away with a strong showing in singles play, taking five of six matches over the Eagles. Smith improved to 9-7 in singles play this year with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Baver, while Hardy ran his record to 8-2 in 2009-10 with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 win over Brian Hope. Vladimirsky, Nissinen and Voznenko completed the scoring for JMU with victories i