Navy Tops Liberty, 5-2, on Saturday

The Liberty men's tennis team was topped, 5-2, by Navy on Saturday at the Tose Family Tennis Center.

With the defeat, the Flames drop to 3-3. The Midshipmen, who also defeated George Mason, 4-3, on Saturday morning, improve to 9-2 with the pair of victories.

The hosts took the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches to gain an early 1-0 advantage. Their No. 2 duo of Zach Jennings and Gabriel Pilones earned a 6-3 victory over Liberty's Diego Castano and Vince Salas. The Midshipmen clinched the point in the No. 3 match, as Ian Landwehr and Cameron Kirkpatrick bested Eddie Gutierrez and Ryker Heller, 6-4.

In singles play, Navy seized a 3-0 advantage with convincing wins in the No. 5 and No. 6 spots. Kirkpatrick continued his strong play from doubles, beating Heller in straight sets (6-1, 6-2).
Landwehr then took down Max Borcuti in the No. 5 position, also needing just two sets (6-0, 6-2).

The hosts officially won the match on the play of Jennings in the No. 3 role. Jennings knocked off Salas in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2 to push the match to 4-0.

Gutierrez continued his streak of strong play this spring with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Navy's Greg Durham at No. 2 singles. With the win, the sophomore improved to 5-1 in singles matchups, this spring.

Gutierrez improved to 5-1 in singles play this spring with a victory at No. 2 singles at Navy.

The No. 1 match between Liberty's Chase Burton and Pilones went Pilones' way, 7-6 (2), 6-3. The final match to finish (No. 4 singles) was won by Castano in two highly competitive sets over Andrey Majkic, 7-5, 7-6 (4), settling the final score at 5-2 in favor of Navy.

The Flames continue their current road trip at N.C. Central on Friday. First serve is set for 2 p.m. at the Dr. James W. Younge Tennis Courts in Durham, N.C.