May 15, 2009

UVA Tops Florida State 4-2 to Advance to NCAA Quarterfinals

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 1 Virginia men’s tennis team advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season, topping No. 16 Florida State 4-2 Thursday afternoon in a round of 16 match at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Cavaliers (32-0) also tied the school record for wins in a season with the victory.

“This was a great college tennis match,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. “It was the third time we played Florida State this year and it is always hard to beat a team as good as they are three times. We have so much respect for them and we knew it was going to be a challenge. I was pleased with how we played, how prepared we were, and how we handled the conditions.”

The Cavaliers opened doubles play by scoring an 8-3 win at the No. 1 position. No. 12 Dominic Inglot (London, England) and Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) broke Vahid Mirzadeh’s serve three times to record the win over No. 20 Mirzadeh and Jean-Yves Aubone. Florida State drew even as Clint Bowles and Chris Cloer topped Drew Courtney (Clifton, Va.) and Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) at the No. 3 position. With the opening point on the line, No. 13 Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) topped No. 74 Drew Bailey and Maciek Sykut 8-6. The Cavalier duo went up a break at 6-4 and held serve to win, which avenged a loss when the teams met in the ACC Tournament.

No. 18 Wake Forest Falls to No. 6 Baylor, 4-1, in NCAA Sweet 16

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - No. 18-ranked Wake Forest saw its NCAA Tournament run end in the Sweet 16, as the Demon Deacons fell to No. 6-ranked Baylor, 4-1, on Thursday afternoon at the George P. Mitchell Center on the campus of Texas A&M University.

With the loss, Wake Forest ends its season with an overall record of 22-10, one win shy of the program record. Baylor moves to 26-5 on the season and advances to the NCAA quarterfinals to face No. 3-ranked Ohio State.

Making its second NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in the past three seasons, and just its second in program history, Wake Forest narrowly lost the doubles point and then put up a hard fight in singles action before falling to a Baylor squad that was making its eighth-straight Sweet 16 appearance.

Baylor opened the match by stealing the doubles point from Wake with a late rally at No. 3 doubles.

The sixth-ranked duo of Cory Parr and Steven Forman got the Deacons off to a promising start by earning an 8-3 win over the 18th-ranked team of David Galic and Jordan Rux at No. 1 doubles.

Men's Tennis Falls to UCLA in NCAA Round of 16

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS... - The No. 22 University of Miami men's tennis team saw its 2009 season come to a close with a 4-1 loss to No. 7 UCLA in the NCAA's Round of 16 on Thursday evening at Texas A&M's George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas.

Sophomore Christian Blöcker scored the lone point for the Hurricanes (16-9) with a 6-2, 6-4 victory at the No. 5 position to win his second-straight match in NCAA championship play.

However it wasn't enough to keep Miami's postseason run alive. After defeating No. 53 Columbia, 4-0, and No. 10 Florida, 4-3, in the Gainesville Regional last week, the Hurricanes advanced to the Round of 16 for the second time in the last four years. But Miami quickly found itself trailing 2-0.

UCLA (20-4) claimed the doubles point courtesy of wins at No. 2 and 3, and then extended its lead to 2-0 with a straight-sets win at No. 2 singles by 49th-ranked Haythem Abid.