Men's Tennis ACC Tournament Blog

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ACC Tournament Blog

Throughout the Cavaliers’ trip to Orlando for the 2008 ACC Tournament, Dom Inglot and Teddy Angelinos will write about the team’s experiences on and off the court. Check in throughout the week for the latest news, stories, and anecdotes from the trip.

(Editor’s Note: For Dom’s entries, his British spellings have been left as they were written)

TUESDAY, APRIL 15

The ACC trip starts for us at the Charlottesville airport. As usual, Treat is late for the airport with Somdev in tow, but hey, they’re the captains and as long as they keep winning we will let them off the hook. After dropping off the bags, we go through security and take two flights via Charlotte to Orlando. [Volunteer assistant coach] Jason [Cole] manages to fall asleep (a talent we all wish we had and Houston is close to perfecting as well) within seconds while the rest of us try to read magazines and listen to music in order to make the flight go by faster. We eventually get to Orlando around 8 p.m. and after picking up our massage therapist, Big Jim, we roll down to our hotel, order some room service and hit the hay.

– Dom Inglot

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16

A nice sleep is always appreciated and after a hefty breakfast we all meet down in the lobby for our first hit. Unfortunately we don’t get to hit at the tournament courts because only the teams that start on Thursday get the pleasure, so we hit at the nearby park tennis centre. Jason and I decide to go for a run and actually get lost in some Orlando neighbourhood before we finally find out where we are an hour later. A quick lunch is followed by a second hit for some of the guys, while the rest of us go back to the hotel and get a massage. Brian tries to find out if we can go to Disney World but in the end it turns out they close at 7 p.m., so that idea falls through. But not to worry there will be a Putt Putt competition for us after dinner to make up for not going to Disney. We have a meal at the Mongolian Barbecue, which is a firm favourite of ours. The Mongolian Barbecue is a good omen, as the last time we were there was when Somdev, Treat and I went to Indoor Nationals in the fall in Ohio and we all did pretty well, so hopefully it will bring about the same success this time round.

Finally the main event starts. The Putt Putt championships, second only to the Masters at Augusta, starts with two teams. The first team includes Jason, Treat, Sanam, Michael, Lee and Steve, our media relations guru. The other team is Tony, Me, Houston, Somdev, and Teddy. Coach Boland did not join us as I think he is getting soft, and despite trying to look tough actually doesn’t like competition Ha Ha Ha (I think I better get ready for 6 a.m. runs for writing that). Despite their tennis abilities, the Indian boys are possibly the worst golfers I have ever seen, whereas Treat could play with a broom stick and still beat us (Treat- you owe me for admitting that). After 30 minutes of heated competition and extreme luck by our opponents, Jason’s team wins by a total of six shots. Steve with his three hole-in-ones and Treat with his total score of 41 help them to success. However, they have not heard the last of us, as I know Tony will not finish on that loss and I predict future match ups. We finally get home and all of us get to bed so that we can rest up and get a good night’s sleep before our last practice day before the tournament. Everyone seems in good spirits and ready to fight hard. I feel that the team has not been at full strength recently and that this week we will be ready to show our steel.

A good night from your correspondent from across the pond.
Cheers.

-Dom Inglot

Other images from Cavalier Tennis Putt-Putt Invitational…

THURSDAY, APRIL 17

Hi to all

Life is good. We had a nice start to the day today with our coaches up early to scout the NC State-Georgia Tech match. We had nothing going on until 2:30 when we had to meet downstairs in the lobby to go for practice at the main site. We had an optional morning hit at 10:30, which I think only Shabaz showed up for. For the rest of us it was a nice, relaxing morning in Orlando. Most of us rolled out of bed just before 11:00, just in time to get some breakfast before the buffer closed. After that I went back to bed for another short nap, I love my sleep and I haven’t been sleeping great the last couple of days so this was a perfect time to catch up on some sleep. A bunch of the guys: Somdev, Treat, Sanam and Houston, as well as out trainer, Jaime, and our massage guy, Big Jim, went down to the pool and enjoyed the nice weather. I finally got out of bed again around 1:00, had a quick shower and read the paper, I sound like an old man but I like to keep up to date with things so I read the paper every once in a while. We had to leave for the courts a little earlier as the hotel was out of power so we had to get some lunch before practice. We were originally planning to eat at the hotel, but that wasn’t happening since there was no power. We went to Quiznos. Nothing exciting happened at lunch, except that I found that I didn’t make the All-ACC team despite being undefeated both singles and doubles. But it was nice that we got three guys, Sommie, Treat and Sanam, as well as the Player of the Year for Somdev and Coach of the Year for Brian, which are both very well deserved.

The tournament venue here in Orlando is really nice. It’s a large park with many courts and even more trees and I think everyone is happy with the tournament site. We had to wait until our practice courts opened up since Clemson and Virginia Tech had an absolute battle, I think Clemson was up 3-0 at some point but then Virginia Tech came back and won 4-3. Even though we ended up waiting for over an hour it worked out well, since we were able to watch our girls play and beat Virginia Tech. This was quite a big match for our women’s team, for with that win I think they are very likely to make the NCAA Tournament.

I feel we had a really good practice. It was nice to see everyone playing well and most importantly feeling healthy, since we had some sort of flu epidemic hit the team this past couple of days. It was really nice to see everyone get a good practice in and feel healthy including myself. It had definitely been a while. But with the whole team healthy I really feel confident going into the postseason starting early tomorrow morning at 9:00 with NC State. The biggest highlight of the day I think was definitely myself and Lee finally beating Somdev and Treat in doubles, 7-6, for the very first time. I think our overall record now is something like 1-32 against them.

After the hit there was not much more excitement. There was no mini-golf battles tonight as we have to stay focused on our job for the next couple of days. We went to the same Mongolian Barbecue place for dinner which everyone was very happy with and then came back to the hotel in time to get a quick massage and a good night’s sleep to be get ready for our 9 a.m. match against NC State. This being my last few weeks of college tennis, I’m really excited to get this postseason going as I really feel confident that all of the team’s hard work over the last couple of months will continue to pay off. Everyone else seems to be excited and pumped as I am so it should be fun.

I’m off to bed now, as it’s going to be a very early start tomorrow so I better go get some sleep.

Take care, Ted

FRIDAY, APRIL 18

Hi to all again,

It was not easy getting out of bed at 5:55 this morning to be down at 6:00 in the lobby to go for our team’s early morning wake-up jog. Brian led the way in the pitch dark. When we returned, we waited in the lobby for a couple of minutes until the breakfast opened at 6:30. I should add that Brian, Tony, and our trainer, Jaime, decided they needed more of a workout and continued running for quite some time. The rest of us had a good breakfast and went up to our rooms to get ready for the match. With the breakfast delay and having to be down at 7:50, I didn’t even have time to get a quick nap, but I managed to survive the day without one.

The match. In my opinion, NC State is the most under-ranked team in the ACC. They are a lot better than their ranking and for a second time in a week played a really good match against us. We knew all of this going into the match, so we knew we had to come out and bring our A game. We took care of the doubles point and I think we played really well on all three courts. Singles was maybe a little closer than we would have liked but you have to give credit to the NC State guys fighting really hard on each court and playing some good tennis. They are definitely a very talented team. I think we are going to play better as the tournament goes on.

After the match we did our usual warm down and stretching and hit up Quiznos for lunch again. After a brief team meeting, a bunch of guys decided to go back to the courts and get a hit in. I think Houston and I were the only two that managed to escape the second hit, so I had more time to catch up on some sleep.

For dinner there were no surprises as we went back to the Mongolian Barbecue. As a team we generally don’t like to change things up much when we are tournaments and doing well, so this week is no exception. There was a nice surprise after dinner we are able to convince the coaches for another round of mini golf, which was a lot of fun. With two new additions to our team, Coach Boland and Big Jim, we (Tony, Houston, Dom, Sommie and myself) were able to get revenge for our loss the other day. So the Florida mini golf challenge is tied at 1-1.

We are back at the hotel and heading to bed for another early night since we have another early wake-up, but not as bad as today as we get another extra hour of sleep. We have another tough match ahead of us against Wake Forest at 10 am. Even though we beat them a few days ago, we all know they are very good team and in ACC semifinals we have to bring our A games. Hopefully we can reward our coaches and all our great fans that are so nice to us with a convincing performance against Wake tomorrow morning.
That’s all for know…

Thanks for reading,
Take care, Ted

SATURDAY, APRIL 19

Today had an early start once more, but it was still an hour later then yesterday. A morning run with our coaches and trainer at 7 a.m. was followed by a good breakfast and at 8.40 we left for the courts. The team likes to get a good hit in before our matches and some of us played a tiebreak of doubles before the matchup started.

Wake Forest came out very strong today as we knew they would. Somdev and Treat did not play their strongest but credit has to be given to Forman and Parr who played great tennis to cause an upset. At two doubles Michael and I played well to tough out a win against a good pair of Adamski and Salmon. The deciding doubles match came down to the 3’s and Wake Forest really played extremely well to clinch the doubles point. The team knew that it would imperative that we come out strong right from the start of singles and I think Treat and Sanam really showed that, by getting quick breaks and set the tone for the rest of the Virginia team.

Virginia came through 4-1 with Sanam, Treat, Houston and Shabaz winning singles points. Treat was specifically happy because he got another win under his belt while Somdev didn’t, so it put Treat two matches ahead of Somdev for all-time dual match singles wins at Virginia, which Treat counts religiously.

After the match, the team came back, got some food and took some time off. Some guys chose to hit again while other got massages and got time for themselves. Later that night we again decided to go to Mongolian Barbecue and followed that with our last installment of the Virginia tennis putt putt championship. The title went to Tony’s team which happened to include me. Tony and I both shot below 40 while Treat did not. Finally I got the chance to rub it in his face. Teddy also happened to hit the most amazing hole in one known to man, by hitting his ball through the jungle, bouncing it off of three different rocks, and trickling it into the hole. After the game we all got back and had a team meeting.

Now in difference to what most suspect, this Virginia team does in fact do school work. This is the time the team gets to do papers and study for upcoming finals. Some of us need to study a little more than others (not naming any names), but we all do get to the books.

My final thought is that we (the team) would like to thank all the fans that came out to watch or that follow us on the internet. It makes it really exciting for us to see loads of people out there today cheering for us and it definitely would not be the same without you guys.

Anyway good night from me and hopefully we will have something to bring back to you guys in Charlottesville tomorrow.

– Dom Inglot

SUNDAY, APRIL 20
Hi to all again,

It was another great day in Orlando for all of us today. It was nice getting another extra hour of sleep in the morning since the final was set for 11 a.m., so we were able to sleep an extra hour. It was also nice waking up knowing that I was a member of the winning team of the mini golf Florida Invitational that we won the night before. Other than that, our schedule was the same as the previous two days and we were all excited to be in another ACC Tournament final. We all knew that Miami is a very good team that pulled back-to-back tournament upsets, beating UNC and FSU, so we knew we had to be prepared and be ready for another battle, as we didn’t want to be victims of yet another upset.

After losing the doubles point against Wake the day before, I think we bounced back well and played with a lot of energy and focus on all three courts. We took the early lead by winning on almost all 3 courts, Sommie and Treat were a few points away from winning just before Lee and I clinched the doubles point. With the momentum in our favor, we got off to a great start singles and once again it was Treat who was off the court first in no time. Treat had a great tournament and was very deserving of his MVP award. Michael was done next with a convincing win and soon after that I ended up serving for the match and clinching the match, which is always a very nice feeling, more so when it is the final of the ACC tournament.

Overall it was a great team effort, going undefeated and winning the ACC tournament. After some brief celebrations in the next day or two and catching up with all our school work, we are all going to get back to work on the practice courts and make sure we work extremely hard so we can be well prepared and focused for our last and most important goal of the season: NCAA’s.

Finally on behalf of all the guys I would like to say a big thank you to a number of people who have helped make this season possible for all of us. First of all to our coaches – Brian, Tony, and Jason, the administration for all the support and especially Jane Miller for being in Orlando and supporting us all week. Our trainers Jaime and Nicole and our massage guy, Big Jim, for keeping all our bodies in check. To Ed and all the staff in the weight room for keeping us in shape. To all our professors who have been very accommodating and supportive throughout the year. To our managers, Caroline and Briana. To Becky Boland, who does all our stringing and a lot a lot more. To Steve Kirkland, our media guru. An extra special thanks to Dr. Mistry who has been more than great to us, giving us weekly massages in his spare time. Doc you are the best, thanks a lot. And last but not least, to all of our great fans that came out and supported us all year long, and especially to those who were able to make it down to Orlando. All the support means a lot to us. Thanks a lot to everyone. GO HOOS!!!

Hope you enjoyed reading the last couple of days
Take care, Ted