May 11, 2008

Virginia Downs Fairleigh Dickinson 4-0 in NCAA First Round

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Top-seeded Virginia opened play in the 2008 NCAA Tournament with a 4-0 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson Saturday morning at the Snyder Tennis Center. The Cavaliers needed just an hour and 45 minutes to advance to Sunday's second round against the Penn State.

Due to the forecast of rain on Sunday afternoon, the second round match has been moved to 11 a.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center.

The Cavaliers (29-0) opened the match by taking the doubles point. Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) topped Priit Gross and Kyle Eddins 8-1 at the No. 3 position. The top-ranked team of Somdev Devvarman (Chennai, India) and Treat Huey (Alexandria, Va.) clinched the opening point with an 8-2 win at No. 1 doubles over Matt Gordon and Josh Girling.

In singles, it was the bottom of the lineup that wrapped up the match quickly. Ted Angelinos (Athens, Greece) cruised to a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 6 singles over Keiichiro Adachi to make the score 2-0. Singh completed a 6-0, 6-0 win over Gross at No. 4 singles and a minute later Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) downed Eddins 6-1, 6-3 at No. 5 singles to clinch the match.

No. 14 Florida State Men's Tennis Start NCAA Tournament With 4-0 Victory Against Samford

Tallahassee, Fla.- The No. 14 ranked Florida State men's tennis team defeated Samford 4-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 10 at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center.

The Seminoles (20-6, 10-3) started strong winning two doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead. The No. 15-ranked duo of sophomore Jean-Yves Aubone and freshman Clint Bowles defeated Hank Grant and Sam Huffman 8-3 on court number one. The win tied the duo with Jeff Groslimond and Chris Westerhof on the single season double's victories list with 27. On court three junior Drew Bailey and sophomore Brad Mixson beat the Bulldogs Renan Silveira and Kelvin DeWet 8-5 to clinch the point. Bailey and Mixson won the last four games of the set to get the victory.

In singles, the Seminoles got a pair of 6-1, 6-1 victories to take a quick 3-0 lead. On court four, junior Maciek Sykut defeated Samford's Brian Dushock and minutes later junior Chris Cloer followed suit with his win against Oliver Reynolds.

UNC Opens Up NCAAs with 4-0 Win

Chapel Hill, NC - The 12-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels proved their status as one of the nation's top 16 programs on Saturday morning, opening up their run in the NCAA tournament with a 4-0 defeat of South Carolina State. Their 12th ranking and subsequent seeding means that they will play host for the weekend to South Carolina State as well as Duke and Arizona State in one of the 16 regional sites that lead to the finals site in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The latter two teams are scheduled to face off on Saturday afternoon for a chance to play the Tar Heels on Sunday in the regional final.

Doubles has been an area of strength for the Tar Heels this season, and Saturday was no different. Seniors Tristan Heinrich and David Stone set the pace for UNC, wasting no time in dispatching David Grund and Jan Langer 8-0. Their win improved UNC to a mark of 19-6 at the number three doubles spot this year, second only to the success the Tar Heels have had at the second doubles position over the course of the season. That mark was improved to 22-3 by the red-hot, 54th-ranked duo of Stefan Hardy and Clay Donato. The 8-1 win not only extended their win streak to ten matches, but delivered a 1-0 lead to UNC. The All-American doubles team of Taylor Fogleman and Chris Kearney was leading 5-1 over Radek Pivonka and Gabriel Meana when their match was halted as the team point had been decided.

Singles were a bit more competitive, as the Bulldogs played some close first sets and mounted a few second set comebacks. However, the talent gap between the two teams was just too difficult to overcome for South Carolina State, as consecutive wins by Taylor Fogleman, Stefan Hardy, and Clay Donato made the Bulldogs 0-4 shutout victims in the regional semifinal match. Fogleman's win was his 23rd of the year, while the All-ACC tandem of Hardy and Donato scored their 20th and 19th wins for 2007-08, respectively.

Duke Defeats Arizona State 4-2 To Advance In NCAA Tournament

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The No. 43 Duke men's tennis team rallied from behind on Saturday to claim a 4-2 victory over No. 23 Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Blue Devils won their first round NCAA Tournament game for the 17th straight season under head coach Jay Lapidus. They will move on to the second round where they will face No. 12 North Carolina on Sunday.

Alex Stone, a senior from Bronx, N.Y., clinched Saturday's match for the Blue Devils with a win at the No. 5 position. He lost the first set 6-4 and faced match point twice in the second set before fighting his way to a 7-6 tiebreaker win to force a third set. His opponent, Wes Miller, broke his serve to start the final set but Stone battled back to eventually win the set, 6-3, and send Duke to the next round. It was the second time this season Stone earned a win to clinch a match. He also earned the fourth point in a 5-2 win at Miami earlier this season.

Miami Defeats USF In NCAA First Round, 4-2

Gainesville, Fla. - The No. 19 University of Miami tennis team started the NCAA Championships on Saturday afternoon with a 4-2 victory over No. 42 USF at Linder Stadium at Ring Complex in Gainesville.

With their eighth victory in their last nine matches, the Hurricanes improved their record this season to 17-7 in advancing to the second round of the event for the second time in the last three years. USF finished its season with a 14-7 record.

Miami won the doubles point with wins on courts one and two. Daniel Vallverdu and Carl Sundberg, who are ranked third nationally, took out Daniel Daudt and Thomas Estrada at the top of the order in 49 minutes, 8-2. Just over 10 minutes later, Miami had the 1-0 lead when Vivek Subramanian and David Ronsefeld defeated Lucas Jovita and Mahmoud Hamed, 8-5.

Hokies defeat Kentucky, 4-0, in NCAA Regional action

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The No. 30-nationally ranked Virginia Tech men's tennis team earned its first NCAA postseason victory since 2002 with a 4-0 victory over No. 37 Kentucky on Saturday afternoon at the Varsity Tennis Courts on the campus of the University of Tennessee.

The Hokies (16-8) will next face off against the No. 8 Volunteers (22-3) on Sunday at 2 p.m. as Tennessee earlier defeated No. 69 Furman (16-11), 4-0. The second round match will mark the second contest between the two squads this season as the Vols defeated Tech, 4-3, at home back in March. Coincidently, Tennessee was the team that eliminated the Hokies in the second round of the 2002 tournament.

The Tech men quickly got on the board against the Wildcats (12-16) by winning two of the three doubles matches and followed that by taking the first three singles matches for the victory. Play stopped in the remaining matches once Tech earned four points

Auburn Stuns No. 25 Wake 4-3 in NCAA Opener

ATHENS, Ga. - The 25th-ranked Wake Forest men's tennis team opened the NCAA Tournament with a doubles sweep over No. 33 Auburn, but fell short in singles and ended the season with a 4-3 loss to the Tigers at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the University of Georgia campus.

Cory Parr and Steve Forman, who were recently dubbed ITA All-Americans, opened the match with an 8-4 win over Alexey Tsyrenov and Terence Nugent at No. 1. Mariusz Adamski and Carlos Salmon followed with the clinching win, an 8-6 decision over Tim Puetz and Pawel Dilaj at No. 2, snapping their nine-match losing streak and giving Wake a 1-0 advantage heading into singles.