Feb. 23, 2004

The most exciting match of the afternoon, featured the No. 1 singles seed Tito Ballester (Lima, Peru/St. Margaret/Winthrop) and the Terps Troy Demers. Demers won a three-set thriller. Ballester took the first set, 6-2. Demers rebounded with a hard fought second set, which he won 7-5. In the super-tie break, the pair battled back and forth for the win. After numerous match points, Demers won the tie break, 14-12. Tim Bainton (Chobham Surrey, UK/St. Georges) managed to take a few sets off of his opponent, Ian Bliss's, but lost the match 6-3, 6-1.

The remaining Terp players put their Patriot opponents away early. Scott Peters, Scott Fink and John O'Rourke were dominating in their Nos. 3, 5 and 6 spots respectively, resulting in 6-0, 6-0, scores across the board for the Terp trio, defeating underclassman Oeg Sirghii (Chisinau, Moldova/Highland School (VA)), Phu Le (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietman/Le Hong Phong) and Brendan O'Connor (Troy, NY/Troy) respectively. Freshman Farshad Garakani (Arlington, VA/Yorktown) played the No. 4 spot for the Patriots battling David Reichsfeld, but lost 6-4, 6-1.

The Patriots didn't find any consolation in the doubles matches as Maryland swept all three matches. The No. 1 doubles team of Ballester and Bainton were defeated 8-2 by the team of Bliss and Peters. The other two matches the Patriots were blanked, 8-0. The Demers/Dawson team defeated Le and Miles Hughes (Lowry, VA/Jefferson Forest) and Reichsfeld/Fink defeated Garakani and Eric Vogel (Fairfax Station, VA/W.T. Woodson).

Final Results Maryland 7, George Mason 0 Doubles No. 1 Bliss/Peters def. Ballester/Bainton, 8-2 No. 2 Demers/Dawson def. Le/Hughes, 8-0 No. 3 Reichsfeld/Fink def. Garakani/Vogel, 8-0 Singles No. 1 Troy Demers def. Tito Ballester, 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 (14-12) No. 2 Ian Bliss def. Tim Bainton, 6-3, 6-1 No. 3 Scott Peters def. Oleg Sirhgii, 6-0, 6-0 No. 4 David Reichsfeld def. Farshad Garakani, 6-4, 6-1 No. 5 Scott Fink def. Phu Le, 6-0, 6-0 No. 6 John O'Rourke def. Brendan O'Connor, 6-0, 6-0