Perfection was the theme of the day for the men's tennis team Sunday afternoon: a perfect atmosphere at the Snyder Tennis Center on a day that honored one of the most accomplished senior classes in Virginia tennis history and a perfect 7-0victory for top-ranked Virginia against No. 30 Wake Forest, all capping off a undefeated? regular season.
The Cavaliers (25-0, 10-0 ACC) came out ready to play from the start and did not drop a set against the overmatched Demon Deacons (16-9, 7-4 ACC).
"It was a great way to end the regular season," coach Brian Boland said. "To finish the season 25-0 is an unbelievable accomplishment. I'm really proud of the team. You have to really sit back and reflect on how difficult that is."
Virginia set the tone early by sweeping the doubles point for the second match in a row.
"Our doubles has improved a lot," Boland said. "We've put a lot of time into it, and I think we are gelling a lot better. We are playing with a great deal of energy."
The No. 45 team of senior Teddy Angelinos and sophomore Lee Singer cruised to an 8-4 victory at the No. 3 doubles position, while junior Dominic Inglot and freshman Michael Shabaz won a hard-fought 9-8 (4) match at the No. 2 position.
After seniors Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey, the country's top-ranked doubles team, faltered last weekend at Duke, both were determined not to let that happen in their last regular-season home match of their careers. The tandem scored an 8-6 victory against No. 11 junior Cory Parr and sophomore Steven Forman.
"We didn't play so well last weekend," Huey said. "We focused hard this week on doubles and really wanted to get back on track. I feel like we did a good job of that this weekend."
After a brief ceremony honoring the seniors, Virginia picked up in singles play where it left off in doubles, winning all six matches in straight sets.
Huey came out firing, racing to an early 6-0, first-set win before taking the second set 6-3 for the victory against No. 58 Parr. The victory extended the senior's winning streak to 15 matches.
"I played great today," Huey said. "The ball was bouncing a little more because of the weather. I was just running down a lot of balls and hitting my passing shots really well."
Devvarman registered a 6-4, 6-4 victory against No. 86 Forman, finishing the regular season on a 27-match win streak to improve his record to 35-1.
"We played some good tennis today," Devvarman said. "I came out really fired up, and it was definitely good to go out with a W."
Angelinos scored a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Wake Forest's freshman Jonathan Wolff at the No. 5 position. The match was particularly special since Boland allowed Angelinos to play on one of the three top courts alongside fellow seniors Huey and Devvarman.
"Teddy wanted to play up top today," Boland said. "I certainly wanted to honor that request because he deserves it. The Wake coach was in agreement that we could make that adjustment, and I am happy for Teddy because he's been really sick the last few days. He was well enough to play on Senior Day and he has meant so much to our program over the last couple of years."
Virginia finished off the sweep with victories by sophomore Houston Barrick and freshmen Sanam Singh and Michael Shabaz.
Next up for Virginia is a trip to Florida this weekend for the ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers received a first-round bye and will play their first match Friday.
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