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Jan. 26, 2005
CHARLOTTESVILLE – The No. 10 ranked Virginia men’s tennis team opened the 2005 dual match season with a 7-0 win over No. 59 Old Dominion Wednesday night at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. It marked the third consecutive season that the Cavaliers have won their first match of the season.
The Cavaliers (1-0) opened the match strong, sweeping the doubles matches for a 1-0 lead. The team of Darrin Cohen (Lafayette, Calif.) and Treat Huey (Alexandria, Va.) cruised to an 8-3 win at No. 3 doubles. Then, in a battle of nationally ranked duos, the No. 19 ranked Cavalier team of Rylan Rizza (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) and Nick Meythaler (Owensboro, Ky.) downed the No. 38 ranked Monarch team of Izak van der Merwe and Nate Grover. The Virginia team of Doug Stewart (Malibu, Calif.) and Eric Riley (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) completed the sweep with a tiebreaker win at No. 2.
Virginia carried that momentum into the singles, sweeping all six matches, five in straight sets. Meythaler and Cohen scored quick wins at No. 6 and No. 5 singles to make the score 3-0 before Huey clinched the match with his win at No. 4. Marko Miklo (Bratislava, Slovakia) and Rizza also scored straight set wins at No. 3 and No. 2 respectively. The final match on the courts was the featured match of the night, pitting two top-20 players. No. 19 ranked Stewart dropped the first set to No. 7 ranked van der Merwe but rallied to win the second set in a tiebreaker. In the superbreaker, van der Merwe took a 9-6 lead, but Stewart fought off those three match points and won the final five points of the match to win the breaker 11-9 to win the match.
The Cavaliers continue their season-opening five match homestand at the Boar’s Head Sports Club on Saturday, as they host No. 44 Minnesota at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free to all regular season Virginia tennis matches.
No. 10 Virginia 7, No. 59 Old Dominion 0
Doubles:
1. #19 Rizza/Meythaler (UVa) def. #38 Grover/van der Merwe (ODU) 8-6
2. Stewart/Riley (UVa) def. Souza/Igarashi (ODU) 9-8
3. Cohen/Huey (UVa) def. Cancado/Mello (ODU) 8-3
Singles:
1. #19 Doug Stewart (UVa) def. #7 Izak van der Merwe (ODU) 2-6, 7-6, 11-9
2. #36 Rylan Rizza (UVa) def. Henrique Cancado (ODU) 6-2, 6-4
3. #63 Marko Miklo (UVa) def. Eidy Igarashi (ODU) 6-4, 6-2
4. #104 Treat Huey (UVa) def. Adriano Mello (ODU) 6-2, 6-2
5. Darrin Cohen (UVa) def. Rodrigo Souza (ODU) 6-3, 6-2
6. Nick Meythaler (UVa) def. Juliano Cirimbelli (ODU) 6-1, 6-1