Even though its top two players — Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey — graduated last year, the Virginia men’s tennis team is continuing to tear through its opponents at a torrid pace and is now riding an 18-match win streak.
This past Sunday No. 10 Texas, playing at home, finally gave the Cavaliers a run for their money, but Virginia (18-0, 3-0 ACC) ultimately prevailed in a come-from-behind 4-3 win. The Cavaliers must now transition back to their ACC schedule with home matches tomorrow against Clemson at 2 p.m. and Sunday against Georgia Tech at noon.
Clemson (7-6, 0-3 ACC) has several solid players with winning, albeit not spectacular, records. Senior Ike Belk is 12-4 overall, compiling a 7-1 record at the sixth position. The Tigers are riding a modest two-match win streak with victories against College of Charleston (7-0) and Stetson (6-1).
Georgia Tech (6-6, 1-2 ACC), meanwhile, does not boast many spectacular individual records. Sophomore Guillermo Gomez, though, who was an All-ACC performer last season, is 21-6 overall and has accumulated a 5-3 record as the first seed. The Yellow Jackets are coming off a 5-2 defeat of Tennessee Tech Tuesday and face Virginia Tech tomorrow.
“I’m really looking forward to this weekend,” Inglot said. “Georgia Tech is also a very good team — a little bit tougher than Clemson — good way to start outdoors with ACC.”
The difficulty of playing outdoors was especially evident this weekend. Virginia originally was scheduled to face two Texas teams — Baylor and Texas — but inclement weather forced the cancellation of Friday’s match against Baylor, creating more downtime than the team needed or wanted.
“I feel like it was the longest trip you can make for one dual match,” sophomore Sanam Singh said.
The team had prepared its psyche for the first match against Baylor, and when it was cancelled, the players felt unfulfilled.
“That kind of threw us off a bit,” senior Dominic Inglot said. “You kind of prepare yourself a bit — you go through the motions to play a match on Friday — and then when it doesn’t happen ... There’s a little void — [you] prepare for nothing — you have to start all over again, [we were] sitting in Austin, [Texas], kind of biding our time waiting for the match on Sunday.”
Once the Sunday match against Texas finally rolled around, it, too, was delayed because of weather. To hurry the match along, the teams played their singles matches first and then played doubles.
“Rain got us again [at Texas],” junior Houston Barrick said. “So we had to start singles first which was the first time in my career. It was a little different. Usually [we] come out fired up in that doubles point. We had to calm down and get the singles point, [which] is usually a little more calm than doubles.”
Perhaps the reverse order of the match threw off No. 18 Inglot and No. 16 sophomore Michael Shabaz, Virginia’s top two seeds, because both dropped their singles matches, giving Texas a 2-0 lead. Virginia then won three of the bottom four seeded matches, though, setting up a showdown where the doubles point would determine whether the Cavaliers would prevail or Texas would break Virginia’s 18-match win streak.
The No. 23 tandem of Inglot and Shabaz picked up the first doubles point 8-6 in the second-seeded doubles match.
“I said to the guys, ‘No way I’m going to lose two matches in a day,’” Inglot said. “I said to the guys, ‘If I have to break the guy’s arm before I lose, I’ll have to do that.’”
The Virginia pair of freshman Drew Courtney and junior Lee Singer then dropped the third-seeded doubles match 8-6, meaning that the first-seeded match between No. 2 Cavaliers Barrick and Singh and No. 35 sophomore Longhorns Ed Corrie and Kellen Damico would decide the final tally.
Barrick and Singh eventually topped the Longhorn duo 9-7, but not before serving for the match at 7-6 , only to lose the point and have to regroup.
“That was a tough match,” Singh said. “I was serving 7-6 for the match and we played a really long game ... The crowd was getting loud — I got broken — and we broke right back at love, which doesn’t happen very often once you get broken in a really long game which is really intense — that was awesome. Then Houston served a really good serve. We had five match points, and finally clinched in the sixth one.”
After the long road trip, the Cavaliers will now play their first outdoor games of their ACC schedule.
“You have to be more patient,” Inglot said of playing outdoors, noting the team is still adjusting to the different environment. “The balls don’t come through as fast. The surfaces — it’s been resurfaced differently — the courts are much slower outdoors.”
Previously, Virginia defeated ACC opponents Maryland 7-0 (Feb. 8), Boston College 7-0 (Feb. 21) and Virginia Tech 6-1 (Feb. 27) — though these victories all took place inside.
“You have wind, [so you] have to hit ball harder,” he said about playing outside. “Then as well as that you have the sun. When you’re serving, looking into the sun, you can lose vision a little bit. You got to move a lot better, be mentally tough.”
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