Cavs roll on, move to 29-0

By Whitey Reid

Published: May 11, 2008

Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh didn’t have a single bead of sweat on them just minutes after their match concluded on Saturday.
And that pretty much summed up how Virginia’s entire NCAA Tournament first-round clash with Fairleigh Dickinson went.
On a windy and overcast morning at the Snyder Tennis Center, the Cavaliers, behind their India connection, crushed Fairleigh Dickinson, 4-0, and took their first step toward accomplishing their goal of winning a national title.
“It was great to get out there and compete again,” said Virginia coach Brian Boland, whose team had not played in nearly three weeks. “The [weather] conditions weren’t perfect, but I thought we did a good job of staying focused and playing hard throughout the match.”
Virginia (29-0), which will host VCU in the second round today at 1 p.m., needed only 40 minutes to take the doubles point.
Houston Barrick and Sanam Singh replaced Ted Angelinos and Lee Singer in the No. 3 spot in the lineup and easily topped Priit Gross and Kyle Eddins, 8-1. Singh says he’s developing a nice chemistry with Barrick, whom he has played with sporadically due to injuries and other circumstances.
“We played [together] a little at the beginning of the season,” he said. “We’ve been switching around teams and are finally clicking at the right time. He brings a lot of energy to the court. It’s really nice playing with him.”
At No. 1, the top-ranked team of Devvarman and Treat Huey clinched the point with an 8-2 win over Matt Gordon and Josh Girling.
In singles, it was the bottom of the lineup that did the damage.
At No. 6, Ted Angelinos, whose parents flew in for the match all the way from Greece, cruised to a 6-0, 6-2 win over Keiichiro Adachi to make the score 2-0. At No. 4, Singh bagled Gross, 6-0, 6-0. Shortly after, Michael Shabaz downed Eddins 6-1, 6-3 at No. 5 to clinch the match.
“With a team like this, we’re so deep that we take a lot of the pressure off the top-three guys,” Singh said. “It’s so much easier for the top-three to play if they have confidence in us — and we have confidence in them, too.”
FDU coach Ira Miller, whose team lost to the reigning national champion in the first round of the tournament last season, said Virginia’s depth up and down its lineup was the difference.
“My guys at the bottom aren’t used to playing guys that are that tough,” Miller said. “We seem to be good luck for whoever we play in the first round, so we will see if that’s the case for Virginia this year.”
The winner of today’s match will advance to the NCAA Round of 16, beginning next week in Tulsa, Okla. The Cavaliers will be looking to reach the Round of 16 for the fifth consecutive season.
“I think we’re going to keep getting better because we’ve been having some really good practices and putting some really good hours in on the court,” said Devvarman, who was leading 6-2, 0-1 when his singles match was halted. “I think it was a good first-round match for us and gets us ready for [today].”
Boland likes the way his team has come out of the gate.
“No matter what the talent difference might be, you still need to adjust to tournament play,” Boland said. “I was pleased with how our team responded.”