Dear Old U.Va.

Men’s Tennis Advances to Sweet Sixteen

Saturday, May 09 2009 by Tim

The Virginia Men’s Tennis team defeated ACC foe North Carolina 4-0 this afternoon at the sun-drenched Snyder Tennis Center. The Cavaliers started off slow in both doubles and singles but managed to absolutely dominate the visiting Tar Heels. So strong was Virginia that after they fell at #1 doubles, they didn’t drop a single set the rest of the afternoon.

Virginia’s #1 doubles team of Dominic Inglot and Michael Shabaz fell behind quickly to the Carolina team of Taylor Fogleman and Clay Donato and were not able to fully recover as they fell 3-8. The pair just never seemed to get into a rhythm. Luckily for the ‘Hoos, their second and third doubles teams came through with solid performances, both notching 8-5 wins to clinch the doubles point.

Shabaz wasted no time making up for the loss in doubles when he took the court at #3 singles. He crushed Carolina’s Brennan Boyajian 6-2, 6-1 to give Virginia a 2-0 lead. Drew Courtney tallied the same scores in his win at #5 over Zach Hunter, putting the Cavaliers squarely in the driver’s seat. The only question was who would notch that fourth point.

Dominic Inglot at #1, Sanam Singh at #2 and Houston Barrick at #4 all had a chance to win, but it was Sanam Singh who pulled it off, defeating Taylor Fogleman 7-5, 6-4. That was a surprise to me as Singh had fallen behind Fogleman in both sets, but fought back hard to win both.

A couple of the more entertaining parts of the afternoon were a few disputed calls at #4 and #6 singles. Houston Barrick called a serve by Andrew Crone long and Crone very loudly disagreed. Entertainingly disagreed, I might say. Lee Singer’s opponent called one of his shots out at the baseline. Unfortunately for him, that happened to be the baseline near which several of the U.Va. players were standing and watching (plus Alex Inglot, more on that later). They loudly protested his call and Virginia assistant coach Tony Bresky hurried over to the official to protest further. The call stood as called, however. For the record, the ball was clearly on the line.

The highlight of the afternoon was certainly Alex Inglot, Dom’s older brother who traveled from England to see his [not-so-]little brother compete in the NCAA’s. He alternated between cheering on the Virginia squad (regularly cheering for every player, not just his brother) and heckling the Carolina squad. The best part may have been his outfit. An open-front orange prison-style jumpsuit with “Virginia Asylum for the Criminally Insane” written on the back and a blue half-mask.

Random thought: The official recap lists the attendance as 449. How in the world do they count attendance at Snyder? It’s an open area with some of the “stands” practically on the sidewalk with people walking by all the time. Anyways…

Virginia moves on to the Sweet 16 and will face Florida State for the third time this season. That match will take place in College Station, TX on Thursday at 1pm (Charlottesville Time).

I put my pictures from the event up in the photo gallery. Enjoy!