Virginia Falls 6-1 to No. 1 Wake Forest
April 15, 2018
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 49 Virginia men’s tennis team (12-10, 5-6 ACC) fell 6-1 to No. 1 Wake Forest (20-2, 9-1 ACC) on Sunday (April 15) at the Snyder Tennis Center in Charlottesville, Va.
Wake Forest won the doubles point and picked up victories on five of six singles courts. Freshman Kyrylo Tsygura (North Potomac, Md.) .) earned a point for the Cavaliers with a victory at No. 5 singles in Virginia’s final home match of the season. Tsygura battled to a 13-11 tiebreaker victory to take his first set over Julian Zlobinsky and then finished with a 6-4 win in the second set.
“Through all the ups and downs, this team keeps working hard and competing hard and as they grow and learn and gain more experience, they are only going to get better and better,” said Virginia head coach Andres Pedroso. “Today is an example of how we can play with arguably the best team in the country. It came down to a couple of decisions here and there and a couple of points here and there. If we had come out on top on a couple of courts, we are still in a dog fight. We were down a break in the second doubles match and came back and were still scratching and clawing. We played unbelievably well at one doubles. We lost the point, but came out in singles competing like we won the doubles point. This team doesn’t look at the scoreboard. They just keep fighting, which is why we are dangerous.”
Virginia started strong, with sophomore Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) and freshman Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) topping No. 17 Ian Dempster and Skander Mansouri, 6-1, at No. 1 doubles. Wake Forest countered with a 6-2 win on court three and then clinched the point with a 6-4 victory on court two.
In singles, the Demon Deacons picked up straight-set victories on courts six and three to take a 3-0 lead. After being edged in his first set on court two, junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) battled No. 5 Petros Chrysochos in the second set, but Chrysochos broke Lizen at 5-5 and held serve to take the second set 7-5 to clinch the match. Wake Forest increased the lead to 5-0 after picking up a three-set victory on court four. Tsygura’s victory made it a 5-1 score.
The match ended with the conclusion of an absolute battle on court one. SÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘¶derlund dropped his first set 6-4 to No. 7 Borno Gojo. In the second set, SÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘¶derlund was serving with a 5-4 lead, but Gojo broke him to make it 5-5. SÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘¶derlund broke back to go up 6-5, only to have his serve broken to send the set to a tiebreaker. SÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘¶derlund prevailed 7-5 to set up a super tiebreaker to decide the third set. Gojo edged him 10-8 in the decider to take the match and close out Wake Forest’s 6-1 victory.
Virginia will finish the regular season next Sunday, April 22, playing at No. 40 Virginia Tech (14-6, 5-5 ACC) at 1 p.m.
#1 Wake Forest 6, #49 Virginia 1
Singles competition
1. #7 Borna Gojo (WF) def. #31 Carl Soderlund (VA) 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 1-0 (10-8)
2. #5 Petros Chrysochos (WF) def. #28 Aswin Lizen (VA) 6-3, 7-5
3. #46 Skander Mansouri (WF) def. Gianni Ross (VA) 7-5, 6-1
4. Bar Botzer (WF) def. Matthew Lord (VA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
5. Kyrylo Tsygura (VA) def. Julian Zlobinsky (WF) 7-6 (13-11), 6-4
6. Rrezart Cungu (WF) def. Ammar Alhaqbani (VA) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. Carl Soderlund/Matthew Lord (VA) def. #17 Ian Dempster/Skander Mansouri (WF) 6-1
2. #60 Bar Botzer/Petros Chrysochos (WF) def. #27 Aswin Lizen/Gianni Ross (VA) 6-4
3. Borna Gojo/Alan Gadjiev (WF) def. Ammar Alhaqbani/Spencer Bozsik (VA) 6-2
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (6,3,2,4,5,1)
T-2:47 A-427