Virginia men's tennis team reaches semifinals at ITA indoors

Virginia overcame a strong Stanford effort in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Saturday night with a 4-1 win that propelled the Cavaliers into a Sunday afternoon semifinal matchup with Ohio State.

Stanford started strong by winning the doubles point, but couldn’t manage to get on the scoreboard in the singles contests. The doubles loss was a nail biter as the newly formed team of Mitchell Frank and Julen Uriguen sparkled at the No. 3 spot for UVa. Breaking twice in their first three opportunities, Frank and Uriguen cruised to an 8-3 victory to get the Cavaliers started.

Over on Court 1, Drew Courtney and Jarmere Jenkins had broken Stanford’s Bradley Klahn’s service to take a 3-1 lead. Courtney stretched the lead to 4-1 with a service hold. Meanwhile on Court 2, Alex Domijan and Steven Rooda were in a fierce battle at 4-4 with Stanford’s No. 2 team of Matt Kandath and Denis Lin.

The tide began to turn when Jenkins lost his serve at 4-2 and then again at 5-5. Meanwhile Domijan lost his serve at 4-4 and soon Virginia was down 7-5 on both courts with Courtney serving on one court and Domijan on the other. They each held, but Kandath and Ryan Thacher would serve out their respective matches to give Stanford 8-6 victories on the first two courts.

This reversed the Cavaliers’ doubles victory from their previous matchup with Stanford in the 2011 NCAA semifinals when Virginia won the doubles point but barely hung on to three singles matches to narrowly nose out the Cardinals 4-3. That was the only dual match that Domijan lost in 2011, defeated in straight sets by the tall lefty Thacher.

In the No. 3 spot, Klahn of Stanford took on today’s top-ranked collegiate player Mitchell Frank, a UVa freshman from Northern Virginia. Klahn played No. 1 for Stanford throughout 2011, returning for his senior year after recuperating from surgery in the offseason. Klahn won the NCAA singles title while a sophomore at Stanford in 2010 and will certainly be in the running for a second NCAA title this spring.

Saturday was only Klahn’s second match this season and at times it showed as he struggled controlling his backhand. Frank and Klahn treated the overflow crowd to a baseline duel until 6-6 in the first set. Frank won the hotly contested tiebreaker 8-6 and then began to dominate in the second set.

Earlier both Domijan and Courtney had made quick work of their Cardinal opponents. Uriguen, overcoming an early break, won at No. 6 in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, making the score 3-1 with the Cavaliers leading in two of the remaining three matches.

Jenkins came from behind in the first set, breaking Thacher twice in succession to take the first set 6-4 and was up 4-1 on Thacher when UVa won its third match. Justin Shane at the No. 5 position was the only Cavalier to drop his opening set.

With a 3-1 lead, the Cavaliers were serving at 5-3 in the second set on two courts. It was a contest between Frank and Jenkins as to who would put the final nail in the Cardinal coffin. The honor would go to Frank, as he closed out this match with Klahn, 7-6 (6), 6-3, winning his fourth match point against to seal the victory.

Sunday’s semifinal match against third-seeded Ohio State will begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Boar's Head Sports Club. Admission is free.