Virginia Downs No. 23 NC State, 5-2
April 13, 2018
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 49 Virginia men’s tennis team (12-9, 5-5 ACC) picked up a 5-2 victory over No. 23 NC State (15-6, 5-5 ACC) on Friday (April 13) at the Snyder Tennis Center in Charlottesville, Va.
Virginia started the match by winning the doubles point to take the early 1-0 lead. The Cavaliers picked up straight-set victories on courts one and three while the Wolfpack won on courts two and five to put the match at 3-2. Freshman Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) clinched the victory for the Cavaliers by closing out his second set with a 7-3 win in a tiebreaker.
“This team has been really close in a lot of matches this year and I knew we had a good chance today to get the win,” said Virginia head coach Andres Pedroso. “We are a dangerous team when we have our full lineup. We squeaked out a doubles point, something that could have happened in any of the dual matches we played this year as we have been close in nearly every match. I knew we were due and today we got it. I thought we made better decisions and played offensive doubles. I’m proud of the guys. They have just competed and competed. They never quit.”
NC State started the match by picking up a 6-1 victory at No. 3 doubles, but junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) and freshman Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) evened things up by closing out a 6-4 victory on court two. Sophomore Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) and Lord picked up a late break to win 6-5 on court one and clinch the point.
In singles, S̮ծԮԦderlund topped No. 37 Alexis Galarneau 6-3, 6-1 on court one to give UVA a 2-0 lead. After the Wolfpack picked up a win on court two, Lizen finished off a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Igor Saveljic to give the Cavaliers a 3-1 advantage. NC State narrowed the gap to 3-2 with a win on court five. Lord, who won his first set 6-1 over Ivan Saveljic, battled in the second set to a 6-6 tie and then won the tiebreaker 7-3 to clinch the match. In the final match, freshman Kyrylo Tsygura (North Potomac, Md.) dropped his first set 6-0 to Robert Turzak, but won his second set 6-4 to force a third set. Tsygura dominated the third set, 6-1, to give the Cavaliers the 5-2 victory.
The Cavaliers close out the weekend by hosting No. 1 Wake Forest (19-2, 8-1 ACC) on Sunday, April 15 at 1 p.m. The match is scheduled to take place at the Snyder Tennis Center. Admission is free for all Virginia home tennis matches.
#49 Virginia 5, #23 NC State 2
Singles competition
1. #31 Carl Soderlund (VA) def. #37 Alexis Galarneau (ST) 6-3, 6-1
2. Tadas Babelis (ST) def. Gianni Ross (VA) 6-3, 6-3
3. #28 Aswin Lizen (VA) def. #121 Igor Saveljic (ST) 6-4, 6-2
4. Matthew Lord (VA) def. Ivan Saveljic (ST) 6-1, 7-6 (3)
5. Georgiy Malyshev (ST) def. Ammar Alhaqbani (VA) 6-4, 6-3
6. Kyrylo Tsygura (VA) def. Robert Turzak (ST) 0-6, 6-4, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Carl Soderlund/Matthew Lord (VA) def. #69 Alexis Galarneau/Michael Ogden (ST) 7-5
2. #27 Aswin Lizen/Gianni Ross (VA) def. Igor Saveljic/Ivan Saveljic (ST) 6-4
3. Tadas Babelis/Georgiy Malyshev (ST) def. Ammar Alhaqbani/Spencer Bozsik (VA) 6-1
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (1,2,3,5,4,6)
T-2:28 A-476