The men’s tennis team came out on top in Wednesday’s double-header, defeating two local teams at the McDonough outdoor tennis complex. The Hoyas improved to 5-7 on the season, first crushing the University of the District of Columbia, 5-1, and then squeaking past Howard, 4-3.

The two teams decided not to play the doubles matches first and jumped right into singles play. Junior Michael Clarke won the closest match of the day at first singles, defeating junior Tomas Gajdusek, 6-7, 7-5, 10-8. Despite a close first set, sophomore Charlie Caris picked up the win at No. 2 by a score of 7-6, 6-1.

“Caris played the best, being down four set points in the first set against a really strong [player] from Brazil,” Head Coach Gordie Ernst said. “But he toughed it out to win just like he has been doing all year.”

Junior Andrew Bruhn lost the lone match of the day for the Blue and Gray at third singles, falling 6-2, 6-4. Georgetown did not let that affect its other matches, though, as senior Bryan Miller rolled over his opponent, 6-0, 6-0, at fourth singles, and freshmen Casey Distaso and Alex Friedlich won at fifth and sixth singles, respectively, to make the final score 5-1.

After a half-hour break, Georgetown faced Howard, a match in which every game mattered. The Hoyas grabbed control early by winning all three doubles matches. At No. 1, Clarke and Bruhn won by a score of 8-4. Miller and Caris picked up the win at No. 2 by a score of 8-2, and junior Mieszko Tomczyk and Distaso finished out the doubles competition with an 8-4 victory at the No. 3 spot.

Howard, however, did not go down without a fight. In singles competition, the Bison rallied from behind to take the lead. At No. 1, Caris lost in a hard fought match, 7-5, 7-5. Bruhn and Miller then fell at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively.

Distaso swung the momentum back in Georgetown’s favor with his 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 4. Friedlich then picked up the win at No. 5 by the same score.

The match came down to the No. 6 singles match between Georgetown senior Tim Walsh and Howard freshman Bogdan Dzakovic. Dzakovic was no match for Walsh, however, as the senior won the decisive match, 6-3, 6-3, to secure Georgetown its fifth win of the year.

“Walsh, who really has not played much this year, stepped up and clinched the match for us at 3-3,” Ernst said. “It is really special for him to accomplish that as a senior.”

The Hoyas will return to Big East play this weekend, playing St. John’s and UConn.

“St. John’s is a really tough opponent. In my five years here we have only beaten them once in 2008,” Ernst said. “Our guys all have to play their very best tennis in every match if we expect to beat them”

The Huskies should be a slightly easier target for the Hoyas, but Ernst is taking nothing for granted.

“We should have an easier time against UConn because they do not seem to be as strong a team as St. John’s,” he said. “We are defending five years of consecutive wins, so the pressure we have on ourselves to win this season is running really high.”