March 15, 2008
Final Stats
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The No. 50 Maryland men's tennis team fell to No. 1 Virginia, 7-0, in its first outdoor match of the season at the Tennis Center at College Park.
The Terps (9-3, 1-2) played very competitively at doubles against the Cavaliers (16-0, 2-0), but could only take one of the three matches in the ACC tilt.
Maryland's strong effort continued into the singles matches, but the Terps failed to win a match against the Cavaliers' experienced line-up.
Playing at No. 2 doubles, the team of Amit Inbar and Nickolai Nielsen earned the lone win for the Terps in their match against the No. 17-ranked team of Dominic Inglot and Houston Barrick.
Following a hold of serve by Barrick, the Terps trailed 3-1. Starting with an Inbar hold of serve in the next game, Maryland won five consecutive games, building a 6-3 lead. After the Cavaliers won the next two games, the Terps broke the serve of Barrick, and then won the match 8-5 on Inbar's serve.
The No. 11-ranked doubles team of Maryland's Andrew Orban and Boris Fetbroyt faced their toughest competition this season as they tried to knock off the No. 1-ranked doubles team of Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey.
Orban and Fetbroyt jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, but the Cavaliers fought back to tie the score. Fetbroyt held serve to retake the lead 4-3, but Virginia elevated its play to another level. Despite a great effort, the Terps fell, 8-5.
Inbar, the No. 68-ranked singles player in the nation, put up a great fight against No. 1-ranked Devvarman, but the Virginia senior's experience showed as he won, 6-2, 6-2.
Nielsen came the closest of any of the Terps to getting a win at singles, but instead lost a heartbreaking match to freshman Michael Shabaz. Maryland's junior co-captain had a 5-4 lead and a chance to win the first set on serve, but Shabaz broke and the set eventually went to a tie-breaker.
Nielsen got off to a slow start in the first set tie-break, and couldn't recover, as Shabaz took the first set. The second set was very similar to the first as Nielsen held a lead at 4-3 before being broken. He eventually lost the set in another tie-breaker, and lost the match, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-1).
Maryland was shut out for the first time this season and suffered its first home loss of the year. The loss also snapped the Terps' five-match winning streak.
The Terps will look to improve their conference record next weekend as they go on the road to face No. 22 Wake Forest at 1 p.m. Friday, and No. 49 North Carolina State at 1 p.m. Saturday.
