Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
NJIT
Men's Tennis Tops NJIT, 5-2
March 05, 2011 | Men's Tennis
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Playing in its final nonconference tune-up before Patriot League play begins Sunday, the Army men's tennis team defeated visiting New Jersey Institute of Technology, 5-2, Friday at Lichtenberg Tennis Center. The Black Knights got a lift from sophomore Gary Kushnirovic, who made his first appearance in the Black & Gold since last season's Patriot League Championship.
Army improves to 4-7 this spring while NJIT drops to 2-5. The Black Knights increased their all-time record against the Highlanders to 3-0.
Playing singles contests first so that the Army women's team could begin its match against visiting Quinnipiac a little earlier, the Black Knights jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead.
Freshman Asika Isoh earned his team-best 12th win of the season and seventh of the spring, defeating NJIT's Petr Rousar at the No. 1 spot, 6-2, 6-3.
Senior Tripp Johnson followed suit at No. 2, defeating Ike Kiro, 6-2, 6-2, for his eighth win of the year and third straight after sweeping a pair last Sunday against Monmouth and Hofstra.
Sophomore Alex Holland won his fourth match of the spring, representing the Black Knights at No. 3 singles. Holland defeated Fraser Croad, 6-2, 6-2.
"Alex has really been impressive this year," said Army head coach Jim Poling. "He's improved incredibly from a season ago. We're pretty excited to see how he continues to grow."
Freshmen Henry Jang-Milsten and Allen Xu won at No. 5 and 6, respectively, to stretch Army's lead to 5-1 before entering doubles play.
Johnson paired with Kushnirovic at No. 1 doubles, defeating Kiro and Martin Cederqvist, 8-5.
Army welcomed back Kushnirovic with open arms in his season debut. The sophomore underwent wrist surgery in October and has been recovering since. Kushnirovic led the Black Knights with 16 wins last season and was named Patriot League Rookie of the Year.
"We're really starting to look good now and we're starting to get healthy," said Poling. "It's a good time to hit this stride with Patriot League matches starting Sunday, too. Gary (Kushnirovic) is back and we might try to ease him into singles on Sunday, and Donald (Van Velzer) should be back soon as well."
Army will travel to Verona, N.Y., Sunday for its league-opener against Colgate. Matches are set to begin at noon. The Black Knights own a 45-15-2 edge all-time against the Raiders, but Colgate has won the two most recent meetings, both by the score of 4-3.
Army - 5
NJIT - 2
Singles
1. Asika Isoh (Army) def. Petr Rousar, 6-2, 6-3
2. Tripp Johnson (Army) def. Ike Kiro, 6-2, 6-2
3. Alex Holland (Army) def. Fraser Croad, 6-2, 6-2
4. Joao Tasca (NJIT) def. Rommel Verano, 6-2, 6-3
5. Henry Jang-Milsten (Army) def. Dan Salomon, 6-4, 6-1
6. Allen Xu (Army) def. Martin Cederqvist, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5)
Doubles
1. Johnson/Kushnirovic (Army) def. Kiro/Cederqvist, 8-5
2. Rousar/Tasca (NJIT) def. Isoh/Jang-Milsten, 9-8 (7-4)
3. Croad/Keelan (NJIT) def. Clark/Holland, 9-7
Players Mentioned
