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Feb. 27, 2004
URBANA, Ill. – The No. 27 ranked Virginia men’s tennis team suffered its first defeat of the season Friday night, falling at No. 1 Illinois 6-1 at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana. The Cavaliers (9-1) had their school-record tying nine-match win streak snapped as the Fighting Illini won their 44th consecutive dual match, one shy of the NCAA Division I record.
The Fighting Illini (12-0) took an early lead by sweeping the doubles matches for a 1-0 lead. Illinois’ nationally ranked doubles teams won at No. 1 and No. 2 and the Illini team of Ryler DeHeart and Pramod Dabir needed a tiebreaker to defeat Doug Stewart (Malibu, Calif.) and Darrin Cohen (Lafayette, Calif.) 9-8 at No. 3.
In singles play, Illinois’ five ranked singles players all won at the No. 1 through No. 5 spots to take a 6-0 lead. In the final match on the courts, Cohen rallied from losing the first set to defeat GD Jones in a super tiebreaker 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 to make the final score 6-1.
“Tonight we played an excellent Illinois team in a terrific atmosphere” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. “They have built a strong program and get great fan support. We will learn and grow from this experience. If we are going to continue to get better, it is these type of matches that will push us to that next level. We got a great effort from Darrin tonight in both singles and doubles.”
Virginia concludes the road trip Sunday as it visits No. 64 Indiana. The Cavaliers return home on March 7 as they host No. 17 Texas at the Snyder Tennis Center at noon.
No. 1 Illinois 6, No. 27 Virginia 1
Singles:
1. No. 23 Brian Wilson (UI) def. No. 18 Doug Stewart (UVa) 6-3, 6-3
2. No. 20 Phil Stolt (UI) def. No. 98 Stephen Rozek (UVa) 6-4, 6-0
3. No. 54 Michael Calkins (UI) def. Rylan Rizza (UVa) 2-6, 6-3, 6-0
4. No. 100 Ryler DeHeart (UI) def. Marko Miklo (UVa) 6-2, 6-3
5. No. 67 Chris Martin (UI) def. Nick Meythaler (UVa) 6-2, 6-4
6. Darrin Cohen (UVa) def. GD Jones (UI) 4-6, 6-4, 10-8
Doubles:
1. No. 8 Wilson/Stolt (UI) def. No. 20 Rizza/Meythaler (UVa) 8-1
2. No. 18 Calkins/Martin (UI) def. Miklo/Rozek (UVa) 8-1
3. DeHeart/Dabir (UI) def. Cohen/Stewart (UVa) 9-8