Virginia Men's Tennis Rolls into NCAA Semifinals with 4-1 Win Over USC
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May 19, 2007
ATHENS, Ga. – The Virginia men’s tennis team made school and conference history Saturday, becoming the first ever Atlantic Coast Conference school to reach the semifinals of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament. The Cavaliers downed Southern California 4-1 in a quarterfinal matchup at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and advance to meet Georgia in the semifinals Monday.
“I thought we played well overall today,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland, “I feel like we are getting better each match we play and we are excited for another challenge on Monday.”
Virginia took a 1-0 lead in the match after winning a tight doubles point. USC took an early edge as Jamil Al-Agba and Garrett Snyder topped Ted Angelinos (Athens, Greece) and Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) 8-4 at No. 3 doubles. Virginia drew even as Dominic Inglot (London, England) and Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) capped an 8-4 win over Dejan Cvetkovic and Gary Sacks at the No. 2 position. The opening point then came down to match at No. 1 doubles between the team of Somdev Devavrman (Chennai, India) and Treat Huey (Alexandria, Va.) and the team of Robert Farah and Kaes Van’t Hof. Neither team could break serve in the entire match and entered a tiebreaker to decide the doubles point. The USC team took a 6-4 lead in the breaker, but Huey and Devvarman fought off the two match points against them and then won the next two points for an 8-6 win in the tiebreaker.
“The doubles point could have gone either way, but we played great tennis,” Boland said. “Dom and Houston have gelled and are really playing well at No. 2 and Somdev and Treat came up big again when we needed them.”
In singles, the Cavaliers extended their lead to 2-0 as Huey topped Cvetkovic 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 2 position. The win was Huey’s 12th consecutive singles win, as he improved to 35-6 on the year. USC cut the lead to 2-1 as Robert Farah defeated Marko Miklo (Bratislava, Slovakia) 6-1, 6-4 at No. 4 singles. Devvarman increased the lead to 3-1 as he finished off a 6-1, 6-2 win over Al-Agba at the top position. The win was Devavrman’s 37th singles win of the season, drawing him within three of Brian Vahaly’s school record of 40 set in 2001. Inglot clinched the victory for Virginia with his 7-6, 6-3 win over Van’t Hof at No. 3 singles, as he improved to 3-0 in NCAA Tournament singles matches.
“After a close doubles point, we did a good job of taking the momentum into singles,” Boland said. “Somdev and Treat led us today at the top of the lineup like they have all season and Dom is playing some great tennis right now at No. 3.”
With the win, Virginia (30-3) records its first ever 30-win season. It was also the Cavaliers’ 16th consecutive win, tying the school record set during the 2005 season.
The national semifinal match between the Cavaliers and the Bulldogs will be Monday at noon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Georgia defeated UCLA 4-0 in its quarterfinal Saturday.
#3 Virginia 4, #12 Southern California 1
Doubles
1. #2 Devvarman/Huey (UVa) def. #43 Farah/Van’t Hof (USC) 9-8 (6)
2. Barrick/Inglot (UVa) def. Cvetkovic/Sacks (USC) 8-4
3. Al-Agba/Snyder (USC) def. Angelinos/Singer (UVa) 8-4
Singles
1. #2 Somdev Devvarman (UVa) def. #36 Jamil Al-Agba (USC) 6-1, 6-2
2. #25 Treat Huey (UVa) def. #52 Dejan Cvetkovic (USC) 6-3, 6-1
3. #115 Dominic Inglot (UVa) def. #63 Kaes Van’t Hof (USC) 7-6 (5), 6-3
4. Robert Farah (USC) def. Marko Miklo (UVa) 6-1, 6-4
5. Houston Barrick (UVa) led Gary Sacks (USC) 6-4, 6-6 DNF
6. Ted Angelinos (UVa) led Jason McNaughton (USC) 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 DNF