The call of free pizza is timeless. Hungry college kids can never seem to resist the lure of a slice of cheese or pepperoni. So when the tennis program wondered how to entice the rowdy tennis crowds it had always wanted, free pizza was its bribe.
It's not that the Cavaliers needed pizza to attract the largest showing at Snyder last Friday. Before the match, crowds spilled over the brick terraces at the tennis courts, some even onto the parking lot in front of Memorial Gymnasium. They came to see their No. 2 Cavaliers trounce their last ACC regular season foe, 5-2, on a windy, but otherwise pleasant afternoon.
Before the free pizza was served following the doubles points, the crowds got into the game next to the court. True college tennis fans yelled out funny cheers that planted grins on the faces of the Cavalier players. The marching band even showed up to play the national anthem and warm the spectators up with Virginia cheer. Yet despite the enthusiastic turnout, Virginia coach Brian Boland wanted more hooligans.
"I certainly believe it was much better than it's been in the past," Boland said. "We had some fans get involved in the match and try to get excited about great points. It was great that the band came out too."
The Cavaliers might have been so impressed that they came out a little flat to start the match. At No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, the junior duos of Rylan Rizza and Nick Meythaler and Doug Stewart and Darrin Cohen both went down early breaks. Rizza and Meythaler eventually lost their first ACC doubles match, but the fans paid close attention and braced for Stewart and Cohen's rally to clinch the doubles point. As a reward, pizza was served after the fans participated in an exhaustingly difficult doubles point.
At the last home game of the year, the four Virginia seniors were honored, and, as freshmen Somdev Devvarman said, they deserved to go out in style.
"I visited all my friends in the dorms, e-mailed every single person I knew," Devvarman said. "Our seniors were being honored. That meant something to me -- they've always been really nice to me, so I wanted to do something nice for them."
Devvarman became the team's own cheerleader, drawing everyone he knew to the match. Rizza and Meythaler both drew from their own fraternities, ensuring a good crowd.
"I went out to every single dorm, talked to every single person," Devvarman said. "I got the girls out -- got the girls to get the guys out. Nick and Rylan, they got the frats out. It was pretty crazy."
These kinds of college fans, the students who come to make noise, heckle opposing players and complain when officials make bad calls, are who the Cavaliers really want to draw to games. Their enthusiasm, along with the support of alumni and the local Charlottesville community, has the potential to raise the national profile of the Cavalier tennis program.
"We're so appreciative of the people that came out and supported the team," Boland said.
Who knows what the next ad campaign will bring for Cavalier tennis fans. Free pizza always draws crowds. But as Doug Stewart mentioned in practice Thursday, a couple of kegs on the sidelines couldn't hurt.