The No. 6 Virginia men's tennis team added a win and a loss to their record this weekend, defeating No. 24 Texas A&M Friday and suffering a loss to No. 20 Texas yesterday afternoon.
The Cavaliers broke their 20-match home streak after a grueling three and a half hour 4-3 loss to the Longhorns.
It looked bright at first when the team swept the doubles to take the first point and lead 1-0.
Ranked No. 25, the duo of Doug Stewart and Darrin Cohen took an early lead of 4-1 in the No. 3 doubles match against Texas' Michael Venus and Miguel Reyes Varela and closed out the win at 8-4. Rylan Rizza and Nick Meythaler secured the point for the Cavaliers when they beat Texas' Roger Gubser and Hubert Chodkiewicz with a score of 8-5. The sweep was completed by the dynamic duo of Treat Huey and Somdev Devvarman. Huey's dominating serve and Devvarman's clutch shots kept them neck-and-neck with Longhorns Callum Beale and Travis Helgeson, forcing a tie-breaker. Encouraged by the crowd's slow-clap, the Cavaliers were able to pull out the win at 9-8.
Texas evened up the overall score when Devvarman lost 3-6, 3-6 to Beale in the No. 2 singles match.
Huey then gave Virginia the lead at 2-1, with a victory against Reyes Varela at No. 4 singles. After falling behind 0-4 in the first set, he managed to stage a comeback and win 7-5, finishing up the match with a second set score of 6-2. On the final point of the match, his powerful serve was returned into the net. After the match, Huey commented on what the Cavaliers will take away from Sunday's close loss.
"We've won the last two doubles points," sophomore Huey said. "I think that'll definitely help us going into the tournament next week, but, obviously, we'll learn from today that we need to come out a lot stronger in the singles."
Indeed, it did not take long for the Longhorns to tie it up again. Playing at No. 1, Stewart was tied with No. 44 Helgeson 5-5 in the first set but could not hold on and lost 7-5. Helgeson performed better in the second set, winning 6-3, securing the 2-2 tie in the overall match.
It was now Texas' turn to take the lead when No. 46 Marko Miklo suffered a loss to Longhorn Milan Mihailovic in the No. 5 singles match. After losing the first set 6-1, Miklo forced a third set after he won the second set 6-1. But Mihailovic proved too much for Miklo, locking up the 3-2 lead for Texas with another 6-1 win.
The deadlock remained alive between the two teams when Virginia's Jarrett Chirico tied it up after a 7-5, 7-5 decision against Venus in the No. 6 spot.
The grueling duel between No. 53 Rizza and No. 34 Gubser at the No. 3 began with a first set loss for the Cavaliers at 7-6. In the second set, Rizza hit a hard shot that made the ball bounce off he top of the net and double bounce on Gubser's side, giving him the break point and a 6-5 lead in the set. Gubser managed to regain the tie, though, and forced a tie-breaker. Rizza's emotions were evident during the tie-breaker, but the senior fell 7-2. This resulted in another 7-6 loss. The final overall score finished in Texas's favor, 4-3.
After the match, Virginia coach Brian Boland commented on Rizza's emotional loss to Gubser.
"He brings a lot of energy, and it's okay for [Rizza] to lose when we lose 4-3," Boland said. "I believe that's probably going to only inspire [Rizza], who at the end of the day is a winner."
The close loss was complemented by the Cavaliers' earlier 6-1 victory against the Aggies, improving their record to 7-3.
Looking forward, the team will travel to Seattle, Wash. next week for the National Team Indoors Tournament.
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