Men's Tennis Rallies for 4-3 Win at Florida State

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April 8, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Virginia men’s tennis team rallied from a 3-0 deficit to down No. 25 Florida State 4-3 Sunday afternoon at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center. Marko Miklo (Bratislava, Slovakia) clinched the victory with his 6-7, 7-6, 6-0 win over Sam Chang to conclude the marathon match, which lasted over five hours.

With the victory, the Cavaliers improve to 21-3 overall and 9-0 in the ACC. The nine conference victories ties the ACC record for league wins in a season, set by the Cavaliers in 2005 and matched by Virginia, Duke, and Miami last season. Florida State falls to 12-8 overall, 4-5 in the ACC, as they suffered their first home defeat of the season.

“Today was a great college tennis match,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland, “Give Florida State a lot of credit. They came out with a lot of energy in doubles, won the point, and carried that momentum into the start of singles. The heart and character of our team came through at the end of the match. We just kept battling. This win was a great team effort from everyone in our program.”

Florida State took the opening point of the match, winning two of the three doubles matches. The No. 2 ranked Cavalier duo of Somdev Devvarman (Chennai, India) and Treat Huey (Alexandria, Va.) topped Chang and Jonathas Sucupira 8-3 at No. 1 doubles. However, the Seminoles took the other matches as Jean-Yves Aubone and Maciek Sykut topped Ted Angelinos (Athens, Greece) and Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) 8-5 at No. 3 doubles and Bradley Mixson and Ytai Abougzir topped Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Dominic Inglot (London, England) 9-7 at No. 2 doubles.

In singles, the Seminoles pushed the lead to 3-0 with a pair of straight set wins. Sucupira defeated Barrick 6-4, 6-1 at No. 5 singles and Mixson downed Singer 6-2, 7-5 at No. 6 singles. Devvarman began the Cavalier comeback as the nation’s No. 2 ranked player defeated No. 99 Abougzir 6-2, 7-6 (4) at the No. 1 position. Inglot made the score 3-2 as he rallied for a three set win over Sykut at No. 3 singles. He trailed 4-2 in the third set before winning the final four games of the match for a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Huey also trailed by a break in the third set, but rallied for a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over No. 92 Aubone at No. 2 singles to draw the Cavaliers even. With the match tied at 3-3, Miklo trailed by a set and was at 4-4 in the second. He served for the second set at 6-5, but Chang broke to force a tiebreaker. Miklo won the tiebreaker 7-2 to force a third set, which he won 6-0 to complete a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-0 win to clinch the Virginia victory.

Virginia will close out the regular season at home with a pair of matches next weekend. On Friday, the Cavaliers host No. 16 Duke at 3 p.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center. Virginia closes out the regular season at 1 p.m. on Sunday, when it hosts No. 5 North Carolina, the only other undefeated team in ACC play.

#3 Virginia 4, #25 Florida State 3

Doubles
1. #2 Devvarman/Huey (UVa) def. Chang/Sucupira (FSU) 8-3
2. Mixson/Abougzir (FSU) def. #47 Barrick/Inglot (UVa) 9-7
3. Aubone/Sykut (FSU) def. Angelinos/Singer (UVa) 8-5

Singles
1. #2 Somdev Devvarman (UVa) def. #99 Ytai Abougzir (FSU) 6-2, 7-6 (4)
2. #22 Treat Huey (UVa) def. #92 Jean-Yves Aubone (FSU) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
3. #104 Dominic Inglot (UVa) def. Maciek Sykut (FSU) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
4. Marko Miklo (UVa) def. Sam Chang (FSU) 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-0
5. Jonathas Sucupira (FSU) def. Houston Barrick (UVa) 6-4, 6-1
6. Chris Cloer (FSU) def. Lee Singer (FSU) 6-2, 7-5