The Cavaliers will seek to maintain perfection this weekend as they close out their regular season against Duke and North Carolina. Wins this weekend in two final home games would give Virginia a perfect record at home this year as well as an undefeated season in the ACC.
After No. 16 Duke (14-7, 6-2 ACC) beat No. 5 North Carolina (20-1, 8-1 ACC) Wednesday, the No. 2 Cavaliers (21-3, 9-0 ACC) gained sole possession of first in the ACC and control of their destiny. Wins against Duke and North Carolina would give Virginia the ACC regular season championship. But the two matches will be no walk in the park; Duke and North Carolina are not only elite ACC teams but also represent two of the top teams in the country. The Cavaliers understand they have work left to do.
We "try not to look ahead too much." Virginia coach Brian Boland said. "I think if we just focus on the things we have all year, the results will take care of themselves. Obviously these are two very competitive teams that have had great years and we're just going to have to come out and play well."
Virginia once again will depend on juniors Treat Huey and Somdev Devvarman to guide the Cavaliers to victory. Huey has played well lately and received the ACC Player of the Week award last week. Huey and Devvarman each have won the award three times this year.
"Earlier this week Coach was making fun of us, saying it was more of a race now that we both have three ACC Player of the Weeks," Huey said. "It's great to get the honor, I'm happy that I got it this week, but it's not that big of a deal. I'm more focused on how our team is going to do this weekend and winning the ACC title as a team this weekend."
The No. 2 tandem of Huey and Devvarman should have its hands full Friday against a Duke team with a very strong doubles team. The Blue Devils have the No. 5 doubles team in senior Joey Atas and junior David Goulet.
"Duke's doubles team has always been really good," Huey said. "They've always had a great doubles lineup and their top team is very good. I feel that Somdev and I have a tough match with them, but hopefully we'll pull it out."
On the No. 3 court, Virginia's team of freshman Lee Singer and junior Ted Angelinos will face off against the Duke pair of senior Peter Rodrigues and sophomore Kiril Dimitrov, who are undefeated in doubles play this season.
Duke is one of the few teams Virginia has played this year that also has three ranked singles players in No. 45 Dimitrov, No. 69 Atas, and No. 115 Rodrigues. The Blue Devils have also demonstrated their depth, taking singles matches in two sets on both courts five and six against the Cavaliers in their last encounter.
After the match against Duke, the Cavaliers will turn to North Carolina. Though the Tar Heels lost to Duke Wednesday, they are certainly not a team to be taken as lightly as their ranking suggests. North Carolina did not have nearly as tough a non-conference schedule as Virginia, but the Tar Heels played several highly ranked teams and had weathered ACC play to go undefeated before losingto Duke. On paper, however, Devvarman has the edge over No. 63 junior Benjamin Carlotti. The rest of the Cavalier squad seems to match up well against the Tar Heels, too.
"I think both Duke and UNC pose tremendous problems if we don't play well," Boland said. "Whether or not they have the depth or not really to me isn't the important thing; it's that we just play well from top to bottom and keep focusing on things we have all year and enjoy the opportunity to play two great teams at home."
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