The Virginia men's tennis team maintained its flawless record this weekend as it rolled over ACC foes Miami and Florida State. The Cavaliers defeated Miami 7-0 Friday and Florida State 6-1 Sunday, which continued the team's trend of allowing no ACC opponents to score more than 1 point.
No. 1 Virginia (21-0, 7-0 ACC) saw marked improvement in its doubles play in both matches. The Cavaliers have dropped the doubles point four times this season and have struggled to sweep all three doubles matches. After practicing doubles every day last week, the Cavaliers saw their hard work pay off as they swept all six doubles matches. The doubles lineup involved new pairings at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. At No. 2, junior Dominic Inglot paired up with freshman Michael Shabaz for the first time and won both matches 8-1.
"There's a lot of confidence between both of us," Shabaz said. "We both serve big so it puts a lot of pressure on our opponents and if we make a few returns and get a break, it's pretty tough to beat us."
At No. 3 doubles, senior Ted Angelinos and sophomore Lee Singer won 8-4 against Miami, and freshman Sanam Singh and sophomore Houston Barrick defeated Florida State 7-6.
The most anticipated match of the weekend was between No. 1 senior Somdev Devvarman of Virginia and No. 4 junior Daniel Vallverdu of Miami, likely the highest ranked player Devvarman will face in ACC play. Devvarman did not leave any room for questions, however, as he cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 victory.
No. 28 senior Treat Huey fell behind 4-1 in the first set against Miami junior David Rosenfeld. Huey then rallied to win nine straight games and finish the match 6-4, 6-1.
"The guy was hitting some great backhands, and I knew I just had to keep playing my game," Huey said. "I've been playing real well all week in practice. I just told myself, 'He's going to cool off. There's no way he can keep doing that.'"
One question for Virginia has been the recovery of No. 5 Inglot, after he suffered an injury and sat out earlier in the season. Although Inglot proved his doubles abilities, he struggled in singles, winning 7-5, 7-6 against Vivek Subramanian of Miami and losing 7-6, 6-4 to senior Sam Chang of Florida State.
"Dom's up and down," Boland said. "He was right there, and it just kind of got away, but his doubles was strong. He's getting healthier so he's been getting the repetitions each week in practice."
The Cavaliers have displayed continued improvements, particularly in the bottom of the lineup. After losing several matches earlier in the season, Shabaz is on a 7-0 winning streak and beat both opponents in straight sets. Similarly, Barrick dropped two matches in the National Team Indoors tournament but has now won eight in row. Singh and Angelinos remain undefeated in duals play, and Singh recently moved into the national rankings at No. 97.
"Our two freshmen, Singh and Shabaz, are striking the ball well," Boland said. "Particularly over the last month, they just keep getting better and better with each practice. [This weekend's matches are] probably as well as Michael's played so far."
The win against Florida State gave Virginia its seventh victory against a top-10 opponent this season, and both wins extend Virginia's home winning streak record to 23 matches, dating back to a loss to Miami in 2006.
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