Story Links
CHARLOTTESVILLE The Virginia men’s tennis team recorded its 20th win of the season with a 7-0 victory over No. 26 Miami Friday afternoon before a crowd of 637 at the Snyder Tennis Center. With the victory, the top-ranked Cavaliers improve to 20-0 on the season and 6-0 in the ACC
“I think the team realized that this is the part of the season, the middle of the conference season, when you need to start taking your play to the next level,” said head coach Brian Boland. “We had a great week of practice and really improved during that time. From the top of the lineup to the bottom, that was the best we have played as a team all season.”
Virginia made a change to the doubles lineup that produced impressive results. At No. 1 doubles, there was no change as No. 1 ranked Somdev Devvarman (Chennai, India) and Treat Huey (Alexandria, Va.) topped Vivek Subramanian and David Rosenfeld 8-2. Dominic Inglot (London, England) teamed with Michael Shabaz (Faifax, Va.) for the first time this season and the duo cruised to an 8-1 win over Daniel Vallverdu and Keith Crowley at the No. 2 position. At No. 3 doubles, the team of Ted Angelinos (Athens, Greece) and Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) returned to the lineup and scored an 8-4 win over Carl Sundberg and Hector Nieto.
“We worked a lot this week on doubles and that work paid off today,” said Boland. “We had a lot of good chemistry and played with a lot of energy.”
The highlight of the singles play came at No. 1 singles where the two highest ranked players in the ACC, No. 1 Devvarman and No. 4 Vallverdu, faced off. The match turned out to be the first one completed as Devvarman scored a 6-0, 6-1 victory to make the score 2-0.
“Somdev came out with really good energy and kind of an extra edge to his play,” said Boland. “When he plays at that level, it carries down through the rest of the team. They just feed off of it.”
Devvarman credited history for the reason he played at such a high level.
“The last time (Miami) came here, two years ago, they beat us 4-3 and that wasn’t a good feeling,” said Devvarman. “In that match, I lost at No. 1 to Luigi (D’Agord) and that was the last time I lost at home. We were all focused for this match and this is the way we expect to play every match.”
Virginia extended the lead to 3-0 as Shabaz topped Crowley 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 singles. Huey clinched the dual match at No. 2 singles, where he rallied from down 4-1 early to post a 6-4, 6-1 win over Rosenfeld. Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) remained unbeaten in dual match singles play as he defeated Sundberg 6-3, 6-0 at the No. 5 position. After Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) downed Barnabas Carrega 6-3, 6-1 at No. 6 singles, Inglot completed the sweep with his 7-5, 7-6 win over Subramanian at No. 3 singles.
The match was the Cavaliers’ first outdoor home match of the season at the Snyder Tennis Center. Virginia extended its school record home winning streak to 26 matches, dating back to the 2006 loss to Miami.
“The crowd was great today,” said Boland. “We have the best fans in college tennis and we really feed off their energy. We hope to see an even bigger crowd Sunday when we take on a tough, top-10 Florida State team.”
The Cavaliers host No. 10 Florida State (14-3, 5-1 ACC) Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center. Admission to all regular season tennis matches is free.
No. 1 Virginia 7, No. 26 Miami 0
Doubles:
1. #1 Devvarman/Huey (UVa) def. #54 Subramanian/Rosenfeld (UM) 8-2
2. Inglot/Shabaz (UVa) def. Vallverdu/Crowley (UM) 8-1
3. Singer/Angelinos (UVa) def. Sundberg/Nieto (UM) 8-4
Singles:
1. #1 Somdev Devvarman (UVa) def. #4 Daniel Vallverdu (UM) 6-0, 6-1
2. #28 Treat Huey (UVa) def. David Rosenfeld (UM) 6-4, 6-1
3. #5 Dominic Inglot (UVa) def. Vivek Subramanian (UM) 7-5, 7-6 (5)
4. #97 Sanam Singh (UVa) def. Carl Sundberg (UM) 6-3, 6-0
5. Michael Shabaz (UVa) def. Keith Crowley (UM) 6-2, 6-2
6. #125 Houston Barrick (UVa) def. Barnabas Carrega (UM) 6-3, 6-1
Order of Finish: Doubles- 1,2,3 Singles- 1,5,2,4,6,3
Records: Virginia (20-0, 6-0 ACC), Miami (9-5, 2-3 ACC)
Attendance: 637