Cavaliers clobber Texas A&M

The University of Virginia men’s tennis team won its third match in three days against top ranked opponents by defeating  eleventh-ranked Texas A&M, 6-1, on Sunday afternoon at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.

The win on Saturday against fifth-ranked Florida and Sunday’s victory over the Aggies came without the play of the nation’s No. 1 ranked college player, UVa freshman Mitchell Frank.

Frank, nursing a sore back, was busy lugging water bottles for his teammates as he watched from the sidelines this weekend. The more than 500 fans in attendance on Sunday certainly would have gotten their money’s worth, had there been a price of admission.

Aggies coach Steve Denton and UVa coach Brian Boland changed the normal rules of engagement by having four doubles and six singles matches. Boland frequently looks for ways to involve players who aren’t often in the top six by agreeing to more matches than the usual three doubles and six singles.

But who wins the doubles point if the teams end up splitting the matches 2-2 (which is precisely what happened as UVa won the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches while dropping No. 3 and No. 4)? With the usual format, Virginia would have won the doubles point, but because they played a fourth match, the point was not decided.

So, back they came onto the court. Not everyone, just the top three teams from each squad. Each of the top three would play a 10-point tiebreaker and whoever managed to win two out of three would be declared the winner of the doubles point. The No. 4 teams were left to cheer on their teammates.

This time UVa’s No. 3 team, Alex Domijan and Steven Rooda, avenged their loss by winning, 10-5.

As fate would have it, the No. 2 duo, Justin Shane and Phillipe Oudshoorn, dropped their tiebreaker match, 10-6.  Now, the doubles point would come down to the No. 1 match featuring UVa’s Jarmere Jenkins and Drew Courtney and the Aggies top duo of Junior Ore and Jackson Withrow.  

A&M led 8-7 with Withrow serving into the forehand court to Courtney, who crushed a down-the-line forehand to even things at 8-8. The Aggies won the next point and were now at match point with Courtney to serve. Two giant serves by Courtney, with put away volleys provided by Jenkins, set up match point for the Cavs with Ore serving.

The Aggies saved that match point but would lose the match 12-10 on a Jenkins serve that could not be returned. 

“I think we have four great [doubles] teams, not one,” said Boland. “We will use this format of four doubles, when we can, to showcase our four great teams. You’ll see that we will have four great teams as we get deeper into the season.”

Virginia won all of the top five singles matches in straight sets, with the Aggies lone point coming in the sixth position as Santiago Villegas dropped a tough three-setter to A&M’s John Lewis. 

The match at No. 1 singles was closer than the score would indicate. Jenkins faced off against Alexi Klegou, ranked No. 19 nationally, and once again had the crowd in high spirits with his shot-making and court speed. Jenkins’ serve, a much stronger weapon this season, kept the talented Klegou off balance and enabled Jenkins to pull off a 6-4, 6-4 win at the top spot.

Boland was exuberant with praise for his junior star from Atlanta.

“Jarmere is exciting to watch,” said the coach. “He is an incredible athlete. He loves the moment. He embraces the moment. He likes to put on a good show and the crowd loves him.”

Domijan recovered some of his old form at the No. 2 spot, but not without a struggle, defeating the Aggies’ Colin Hoover 6-2, 7-6 (5). Courtney, Shane and Oudshoorn each won their matches relatively easily.