In their second tournament of the season, the Georgetown men’s tennis team claimed three flight championships at the Navy Gold Invitational in Annapolis, Md. Junior Brian Ward and freshman Casey Distaso won the No. 3 doubles title. In singles, senior Tim Walsh and freshman Alex Friedlich both won championships.

The tournament pitted the Blue and Gray against the University of Maryland Baltimore County, crosstown rival George Washington and host Navy. George Washington had last faced off against the Hoyas during the Georgetown Classic, with the Colonials seizing the singles crown.

Instead of the conventional tennis tournament format, the Navy Gold Invitational operated on a flight system in which each team played a dual match in the first round, with records deciding the champion in each flight. This added a bigger team component to the tournament than was present in the Georgetown Classic.

“The Georgetown [Classic]’s more of an individual thing. No one’s really linked together,” Distaso said. “[In] the Navy tournament, you go in as a team, you duel as a team, and then you’re done for the day. Every match is a lot more important.”

The main story from last weekend’s tournament was the performance of Distaso and Ward, who earned a No. 3 doubles title and did not lose a match along the way. The duo won its first match against George Washington 8-3 and then proceeded to down Navy 9-7. Unfortunately, they were unable to play UMBC due to a lack of participants, but their scores still earned them passage into the championship against the Midshipmen. In the finals, they defeated Navy 8-4 and earned the Hoyas a flight victory.

“A lot of teams were very, very serious and very intense,” Distaso said. “To go in there and beat veteran teams and not lose a match in doubles was really cool.”

Walsh also went undefeated to win his respective championship in the No. 8 singles flight. He defeated junior Andy Erickon from George Washington 6-4, 6-1 and then defeated Navy senior Mike Eisenberg 6-1, 6-3.

In the No. 6 singles flight, Friedlich faced tough competition on his drive to victory. He went the three-set distance in defeating George Washington’s junior Richard Blumenfield, 0-6, 6-4, 1-0 (12-10) before losing his second match and then bouncing back with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over UMBC’s freshman Hayward Dreyton.

Other performances of note by the Blue and Gray this weekend came in the form of three doubles wins against George Washington, four singles wins against UMBC and three doubles wins against Navy.

Georgetown junior Michael Clarke’s defeat of Navy’s senior Owen Bullard, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8), in the No. 1 flight represented a landmark singles victory for the Hoyas.

In their final tournament of the fall season, the Hoyas head to Charlottesville, Va., for the USTA/ITA Atlantic Regional Tournament Oct. 20 to 24.”