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Shabaz, Courtney/Shabaz Advance at NCAA Championships
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STANFORD, Calif. – The Virginia men’s tennis team had one singles player and one doubles team advance to the round of 16 during day two of the NCAA Individual Championships at the Taube Tennis Center. Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) advanced in singles and the team of Shabaz and Drew Courtney (Clifton, Va.) advanced in doubles.
Shabaz, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, advanced with 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over Dean Jackson of San Diego. He fell behind early, suffering the only break of serve in the first set in the fourth game of the match, and Jackson served out to take the first set. The second set remained on serve until Shabaz broke Jackson in the final game to win it 7-5. In the third set, Shabaz opened up a 3-0 lead and served for the match at 5-3. Jackson broke to get back on serve, at 5-4, but Shabaz broke right back to close out the match. Shabaz will play 9-16 seed Austen Childs of Louisville in the round of 16 on Friday.
Jarmere Jenkins (College Park, Ga.) suffered a second round loss on Thursday to 9-16 seed John-Patrick Smith of Tennessee, 6-3, 6-1. The match was on serve in the first with Jenkins serving at 3-4, but Smith won eight of the final nine games of the match to record the victory.
In doubles, second-seeded Shabaz and Courtney began their title defense by rallying for a 6-7(5), 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Mehdi Bouras and Bernard Schoeman of UNLV. Neither team could get a break in the first set, which went to a tiebreaker. The Cavalier duo was up 5-4 in the breaker before the UNLV team won the final three points to take the first set. In the second set, Shabaz and Courtney broke Schoeman’s serve twice to win it 6-2 and force a decisive set. The third set mirrored the first with each side holding serve in every game. In the breaker, the Cavalier team raced out to a 6-1 lead and won it 7-2 to advance. They will play Connor Smith and Vahid Mirzadeh of Florida State on Friday.
The team of Jenkins and Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) lost their NCAA Doubles Championship debut, falling to third-seeded Austin Krajicek and Jeff Dadamo of Texas A&M 6-4, 6-3.
Friday’s schedule features the round of 16 in both singles and doubles.