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April 4, 2014

CLEMSON, S.C. – The fourth-ranked Virginia men’s tennis team remained unbeaten in ACC play by rallying for a 4-3 victory over No. 17 Clemson Friday at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center. The Cavaliers (16-2, 7-0 ACC) won their seventh straight match, while the Tigers fell to 17-5 (4-3 ACC).

“It was good to have the team go through a match like this,” said head coach Brian Boland. “Clemson played a great match and really pushed us. To face adversity like this and be able to overcome it says a lot about this group.”

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the match by winning the doubles point, marking the first time since March 5 at UCLA that the Cavaliers dropped the opening point. The Clemson pair of Luke Johnson and Austin Ansari downed Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Charlotte, N.C.) and Jordan Daigle (Lafayette, La.) 8-5 at No. 3 doubles before the other two matches went to a tiebreaker. At No. 2, Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) and Harrison Richmond (Pawleys Island, S.C.) rallied from down two breaks at 6-2 for an 8-7(5) victory over Alejandro Augusto and Robert Dudley. With the doubles point on the line, Clemson’s Hunter Harrington and Dominique Maden edged Justin Shane (Falls Church, Va.) and Luca Corinteli (Alexandria, Va.) 8-7(3) at the No. 1 position.

Virginia responded from dropping the doubles point by winning four of the six first sets in singles. Justin Shane drew the Cavaliers even with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Ansari at No. 4 singles. J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.) gave Virginia the lead, 2-1, with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 6 over Dudley. Kwiatkowski extended the lead to 3-1 with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Augusto at No. 3.

The Tigers rallied to tie the match at 3-3 with a pair of wins. Maden posted a three-set win over Ryan Shane (Falls Church, Va.) at No. 2 singles, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, and Johnson defeated Daigle 7-6(5), 7-5 at No. 5 singles.

The match came down to No. 1 singles, where Domijan rallied for a three-set win over Harrington, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Harrington served for the match at 6-4, 5-4, but Domijan broke him and proceeded to win nine of the final 10 games to clinch the match and the victory for Virginia.

“It was a tough match,” said Boland. “Due to some guys being sick, we had a depleted roster. We had to throw some doubles teams together at the last minute and we weren’t sure until match time who would be able to play singles. I am proud of this group to be able to pull out a win under some tough conditions against a great Clemson team.”

The Cavaliers will conclude their road trip Saturday as they visit No. 64 Georgia Tech. Match time in Atlanta is 1 p.m.

#4 VIRGINIA 4, #17 CLEMSON 3

Doubles:
1. #25 Harrington/Maden (CU) def. J.Shane/Corinteli (UVa) 8-7(3)
2. Domijan/Richmond (UVa) def. Augusto/Dudley (CU) 8-7(5)
3. Johnson/Ansari (CU) def. Kwiatkowski/Daigle (UVa) 8-5
Order of Finish: 3,2,1

Singles:
1. #24 Alex Domijan (UVa) def. #82 Hunter Harrington (CU) 4-6, 7-5, 6-1
2. Dominique Maden (CU) def. #40 Ryan Shane (UVa) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
3. #112 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVa) def. Alejandro Augusto (CU) 6-3, 7-5
4. Justin Shane (UVa) def. Austin Ansari (CU) 6-4, 6-1
5. Luke Johnson (CU) def. #76 Jordan Daigle (UVa) 7-6(5), 7-5
6. J.C. Aragone (UVa) def. Robert Dudley (CU) 6-4, 6-4
Order of Finish: 4,6,3,2,5,1

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