Cavs advance to ACC finals

By Whitey Reid

Published: April 20, 2008

In college tennis, winning the doubles is often the catalyst to beating an opponent.
On Saturday morning in Altamonte, Fla., Virginia lost the doubles point to Wake Forest.
However, UVa roared back in the singles and cruised to a 4-1 victory in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
No. 1 Virginia (27-0) will play Miami/FSU in today’s final that begins at 11 a.m.
“I thought we played a little
better,” said UVa coach Brian Boland in a telephone interview. “We’re getting a little bit better each day. Hopefully we’ll play our best match [today].”
Virginia, which had beat N.C. State in the quarterfinals on Friday, came within an eyelash of winning the doubles but Ted Angelinos and Lee Singer lost to Jason Wolff and Jonathan Morganstern in a tiebreaker. Coupled with Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey’s 8-5 loss, it enabled Wake (17-10) to earn the point.
“That didn’t discourage me that much because I thought we came out ready to play and fought hard,” Boland said. “It was really close. I just thought Wake played really well.”
The singles action wasn’t nearly as competitive.
Huey set the tone by crushing Cory Parr, 6-2, 6-1. Then, Houston Barrick, Sanam Singh and Michael Shabaz all won in straight sets to close out the match.
“The doubles could have gone either way, but we feel whoever we’re playing we can always get the job done in singles,” Shabaz said. “We were able to take care of business and look pretty good.”
Shabaz was pleased with his performance.
“I really served well,” he said. “I wasn’t broken the entire match, which really put a lot of pressure on my opponent.”
Meanwhile, Singh, who lost his match to N.C. State on Friday, bounced back strong.
“He played well,” Boland said. “He played how we had seen him play earlier in the season. The last couple of weeks he had been unhealthy. This was the first day where he really felt good again, so I think that made a big difference for him.”
Both Devvarman and Angelinos were leading their matches when play was halted after Virginia clinched.
For the second straight day, Boland chose to rest Dom Inglot, who has been bothered by a sore arm.
“He felt like he could play all three days,” Boland said, “but we didn’t want to do that unless we absolutely needed to. When we do play him, he’s going to be very fresh and I think he’ll play incredible.”
Boland was looking forward to today’s championship.
“We’ll be ready,” he said, “to hopefully step it up another level.”
Aces
With the victory, Virginia extended its school-record winning streak to 27 matches overall and 30 straight against ACC opponents (regular season and posteseason). The Cavaliers improved to 13-1 at the ACC Tournament since 2004. The win was also Virginia’s third semifinal win over the Demon Deacons in the past four years.