No. 5 Illinois Falls to No. 8 Virginia

Sunday, January 28

Charlottesville, Va.

11:00 AM

University of Illinois

Virginia

January 28, 2007 | Men's Tennis

Jan. 28, 2007

Results

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The No. 5 Illinois men's tennis team suffered a tough setback at the hands of eighth-ranked Virginia today at the Boyd Tinsley Court. Juniors Kevin Anderson and Ruben Gonzales teamed together to take down the No. 7-ranked doubles tandem of Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey of Virginia at No. 1 doubles, 8-6, but the win was not enough as Virginia went on to take the match 5-2.

"We came out a little flat on doubles and were not able to execute on the fundamentals in our matches," head coach Brad Dancer said. "We have great doubles players, but we just lacked some mental preparation from the coaching staff on getting our teams ready to play today. I was pleased with the team in singles, I thought they fought hard and stayed aggressive and resilient even when they were down. You have to tip your hat to Virginia they played well today and are a good team, who will be a force for the rest of the year."

In doubles, Anderson and Gonzales (ILL) played a tight match in the top spot, but had a late-match push to take the lead en route to the victory over Devvarman and Huey (UVA). At No. 2 doubles, juniors Ryan Rowe and Brandon Davis (ILL) could not overcome the pair of Houston Barrick and Dominic Inglot (UVA), losing the match 8-4. Closing out doubles in the No. 3 slot, senior GD Jones and sophomore Marc Spicijaric (ILL) fell to Ted Angelinos and Lee Singer (UVA), 8-5.

"I was really happy to see Rowe regain a hold of his match in singles, and he took control from there in the second set," Dancer said. "GD also did a great job of turning his match around in the second set when he was down to eventually win it in the third. Overall, we were good spirited. If we continue to come out with that mind set, all of the rest of the things will fall into place for success."

In singles, the Illini, overall, fell behind early in their matches and were not able to recover down the stretch. At No. 1 singles, Anderson (ILL) took a quick one-set lead against Devvarman (UVA), but was forced into a tiebreak by the eighth-ranked player in the country, eventually dropping the match 4-6, 7-5, 10-8. At No. 2 singles, Rowe (ILL) was victorious in three sets over Inglot (VA) 5-7, 6-3, 10-4, while in the No. 3 spot, 10th-ranked Huey (UVA) downed Gonzales (ILL) 6-4, 6-3. Jones (ILL) posted the Illini's only other win on the day, taking down Barrick (UVA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the No. 4 slot. At No. 5, No. 83-ranked Spicijaric (ILL) fell to Angelinos (UVA) 6-1, 6-3, while Davis (ILL) could not overcome Singer (UVA) in his 6-3, 6-0 loss.

The Illini will be back in action when they host nationally-ranked Duke on Friday, Feb. 2 at the Atkins Tennis Center at 6 p.m., followed by a match against Tennessee on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 6 p.m.