Picking up where last season's dominating 30-4 squad left off, the No. 1 Virginia men's tennis team showcased an impressive season-opener Sunday with a 7-0 win against No. 43 William & Mary at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar's Head Sports Club.
Virginia jumped on the Tribe right away, adding points on the scoreboard early.
Senior Ted Angelinos and sophomore Ted Singer defeated William & Mary's Kavi Sud and Sebastien Vidal 8-2. The No. 17 pair's upset gave the Cavaliers an early 1-0 lead.
Then-No. 25 sophomore Houston Barrick and junior Dominic Inglot defeated Dominic Pagon and Richard Wardell 8-4, after breaking a 4-4 tie and winning the last four games of the match.
While the Tribe's leading doubles tandem Alex Cojanu and Keziel Juneau entered the match No. 33 in the country, they were unable to contain Virginia's top-ranked Somdev Devvarman and senior Treat Huey, falling 8-6.
"We were just really pumped up by this being the first match," Huey said. "Somdev and I tried to play with a lot of energy."
Further contributing to Virginia's blowout were singles veterans Devvarman, No. 3 Inglot, and No. 12 Huey, as well as burgeoning talents sophomore No. 83 Barrick and freshmen Sanam Singh. All players registered wins yesterday.
Devvarman defeated Alex Cojanu 6-2, 6-4 while Huey beat Dominic Pagon 6-0, 6-4.
Fluid, powerful serves mixed with Angelino's speed proved too much for Richard Wardell, resulting in a 6-4, 6-2 Virginia win.
Angelinos was quick to credit his tennis fundamentals with this weekend's success.
"I feel I served really well, and played solid all around," Angelinos said.
Nevertheless, he feels there is always room for improvement.
"I'm going to keep working hard at practice ... [For next week's match], I plan to work on staying focused," Angelinos said.
In the opening game of his first season as a nationally-ranked player, Barrick dominated Alex Zuck, 6-4, 6-1. In Sunday's meet, Barrick's court intensity confirmed he is a promising player to keep on the radar.
Barrick aggressively hounded the net for returns, leaving his opponent little room for short drop shots. Barrick's attempt to return every ball by running his opponent cross-court wore out Wardell, allowing Barrick to take advantage and go on a 6-1 scoring run in the winning set.
Singh and Singer sealed the victory for Virginia, pulling out wins after dueling lengthy singles matches that went to third set tiebreakers.
Singh played a competitive match, defeating Keziel Juneau6-3, 6-7, 11-9.
Singer opened his match strong, but allowed Marwan Ramadan to overpower him 6-1 in the second set. After a shaky set, Singer, frustrated by his own missed returns, stepped up his play, fighting back to overcome Ramadan in the third set. He went on to win the final set 6-3.
Virginia has overthrown the Tribe in the last four meetings, and Sunday's match marks the second consecutive year the Cavaliers have overwhelmed William & Mary 7-0 in a season opener.
After the match, Huey reveled in the fact that "a lot of the young guys did well today ... Everyone came out and played good tennis."
Virginia's mixture of skilled upperclassmen and talented younger players give them a good chance for another run for an NCAA championship this season.
"We have to take it a match at a time," Angelinos said.
The Cavaliers (1-0) will battle No. 8 Illinois Friday.
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