Clemson Men’s Tennis Edges Army 4-3

Feb. 15, 2004

Box Score

West Point, NY — The 27th-ranked Clemson men’s tennis team edged the U.S. Military Academy 4-3 on Saturday evening at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center.

Army started the match strong, capturing two of the three doubles matches to win the doubles point. John Sabia and Rafael Albornoz began at number one singles with a narrow 9-8 victory over Goran Sterijovski and Damiisa Robinson. Army’s Michael Good and John Houghton defeated the No. 17-ranked doubles team of Nathan Thompson and Jarmaine Jenkins, 8-5, to clinch the point for Army. At number three doubles, Ryan Young and John Boetsch defeated Carl fisher and Sebastian Salas by a score of 8-6.

In singles action, Sterijovski fell to Sabia at the number one position in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. No. 31 Nathan Thompson defeated Rafael Albornoz 6-1, 6-2. Robinson fell to Houghton in a three set battle at number three singles 5-7, 6-2, 6-3. Jarmaine Jenkins won at number four singles, defeating Fisher 6-4, 6-4, and Ryan Young continued his winning streak by beating Kyle Roybal 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 at number six singles.

With the match tied 3-3, the pressure came down to the number five singles match. Boetsch dropped the first set to Good 6-3. Boetsch rallied to take the second set 7-6 in a tiebreaker. Boetsch battled Good to another marathon tiebreaker in the decisive set, with Good having five opportunities to put the match away. But Boetsch rallied from five match points to outlast Good 12-10 in the third set tiebreaker to pull out the victory for the Tigers.

Clemson improves to 8-2 with the victory. The Tigers return to action on Sunday morning as they face Princeton.