North Carolina
Virginia
No. 3 Virginia Downs Tar Heel Men's Tennis Squad, 5-2
April 10, 2005 | Men's Tennis
April 10, 2005
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina's 40th-ranked men's tennis team put up a fight but fell to a talented Virginia squad ranked No. 3 in the nation 5-2 Sunday afternoon at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on the University of North Carolina campus. The Cavaliers remained unbeaten in the ACC and their only two losses this season have come at the hands of defending NCAA champion Baylor.
Virginia clinched the top seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament with the victory and the Cavaliers ended their five-match losing streak at the hands of the Tar Heels in the process.
The loss was only the second this season at home for the Tar Heels who are now 11-2 at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
UNC received singles victories at the No. 5 spot from senior Jonathan Janda and at the No. 6 spot from sophomore Sebastian Guejman. At No. 2, junior Brad Pomeroy fought 59th-ranked Rylan Rizza to three sets before falling.
For the second straight match the Tar Heels were swept in the doubles matches as Virginia jumped out to a 1-0 lead. It also happened Friday in UNC's 6-1 loss at Wake Forest. Ironically, UNC has been swept in doubles only twice this season and in both instances it was an obstacle Carolina was unable to overcome. Virginia's nationally-ranked teams at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles both earned wins with the No. 1 team of Rylan Rizza and Nick Meythaler edging the No. 41 UNC team of Geoff Boyd and Brad Pomeroy, 8-6.
Virginia extended its lead to 3-0 with straight set singles victories at both the No. 4 and No. 1 slots. At No. 4, Virginia's Treat Huey, the only player in the Wahoos' singles lineup who is not nationally ranked in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, downed Carolina's Derek Porter, 6-1, 6-2. Doug Stewart, the nation's No. 11 player, defeated Raian Luchici of Carolina, ranked No. 80, at No. 1 by a 6-0, 6-2 score.
The Cavaliers secured the clinching point at No. 3 singles where Somdev Devvaman, ranked No. 17 in the nation, overcame a game effort by UNC senior Geoff Boyd, 6-3, 6-3. The victory by Devvaman put Virginia up by an insurmountable 4-0 margin.
UNC scored its first point of the match at No. 6 singles as sophomore Sebastian Guejman rallied for a win over the nation's No. 50 player, Darrin Cohen, by a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 count. At No. 5 singles, UNC co-captain Jonathan Janda, a senior from Shelby, N.C., split the first two sets with the Wahoos' Marko Milko, ranked No. 125, with Milko winning the first 6-0 and Janda the second 6-4. With the match already clinched the head coaches decided to play a supertiebreaker to decide the match and Janda prevailed 10-8.
The last match off the court was at No. 2 where No. 59 Rylan Rizza and UNC's Brad Pomeroy hooked up in another grueling, three-set affair. Rizza scored the comeback win over a solid effort by the Tar Heel junior by a score of 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
North Carolina will continue its brief two-match homestand on Wednesday when the Tar Heels play host to fifth-ranked Duke at 3 p.m. at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. The match will be worth one point in the 2004-05 Carlyle Cup standings. The Carlyle Cup is awarded annually to the school which accumulates the most points in the all-sports battle based on competition in 23 sports.
UNC leads the 2004-05 Carlyle Cup standings by an 11.5-6.5 score at the present time.
Virginia is now 20-2 overall with the win and 8-0 in the ACC. UNC is 14-7 overall and 4-4 in the ACC.
#3 VIRGINIA 5, #40 NORTH CAROLINA 2
DOUBLES (worth 1 team point to team winning majority of matches)
1. #32 Rylan Rizza/Nick Meythaler (UVA) def. #41 Geoff Boyd/Brad Pomeroy (UNC), 8-6
2. #60 Somdev Devvarman/Treat Huey (UVA) def. Raian Luchici/Jonathan Janda (UNC), 8-5
3. Darrin Cohen/Doug Stewart (UVA) def. David Stone/Will Plyler (UNC), 8-4
Order of Finish: #3, #2, #1
SINGLES
1. #11 Doug Stewart (UVA) def. #80 Raian Luchici (UNC), 6-0, 6-2
2. #59 Rylan Rizza (UVA) def. Brad Pomeroy (UNC), 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
3. #17 Somdev Devvarman (UVA) def. Geoff Boyd (UNC), 6-3, 6-3
4. Treat Huey (UVA) def. Derek Porter (UNC), 6-1, 6-2
5. Jonathan Janda (UNC) def. #125 Marko Milko (UVA), 0-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8)
6. Sebastian Guejman (UNC) def. #50 Darrin Cohen (UVA), 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
Order of Finish: #4, #1, #3, #6, #5, #2
Records: Virginia 20-2, ACC 8-0; North Carolina 14-7, ACC 4-4
Players Mentioned
