May 17, 2009

Cavaliers Fall to USC in NCAA Quarterfinals
The No. 1 Virginia men’s tennis team suffered its first loss of the season, falling to No. 8 USC 4-0 in the NCAA Quarterfinals at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Cavaliers end the season with a 32-1 record for the second consecutive season.

When the match began on Saturday, USC took a 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point. The Trojans took the early lead in doubles when Matt Kecki and Jaak Poldma topped Drew Courtney (Clifton, Va.) and Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) 8-5 at the No. 3 position. Virginia drew even at the No. 1 position. No. 12 Dominic Inglot (London, England) and Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) were tied at 6-6 against No. 4 Steve Johnson and Robert Farah. The Cavalier duo broke Farah’s serve to go up 7-6 and Shabaz served out the match for the 8-6 Virginia win. With the opening point on the line, Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) rallied from down a break to tie the match at 6-6 against Abdullah Magdas and Daniel Nguyen. The Virginia team took an 8-7 lead when they broke Nguyen’s serve, but the USC team broke Barrick’s serve in the next game to force a tiebreaker. In the breaker, the Trojan team took a 5-0 lead, but Virginia rebounded to close to 6-5 before the USC team closed out the 7-5 tiebreaker win. The 9-8 loss at No. 2 secured the doubles point for USC, just the third time all season the Cavaliers have lost the doubles point.

Singles play began Saturday but was halted when the rain came about 10 minutes after the start. When play resumed on Sunday the Trojans took four of the six first sets in singles. The USC lead was extended to 2-0 as Farah defeated Inglot 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Johnson topped Singh 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 singles to make the score 3-0. Magdas clinched the victory for USC as he rallied from losing the first set to score a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Barrick.