CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. –The Virginia Tech men's tennis team battled No. 5 Virginia on Sunday afternoon, but the Cavaliers held off the Hokies to win the match 4-2 at Boar's Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Tech (16-8, 6-6 ACC) got out to the lead after securing the doubles point. UVA (19-3, 10-2 ACC) won the match on court two, but the Hokies evened it up with Carlo Donato and Alex Ribeiro getting the match 6-3 on court three. Henrik Korsgaard and Ryan Kros clinched the point with the 6-4 win on court one.
Virginia got the first three singles matches to go into the lead before freshman Evan Fragistas claimed his match on court six 7-5, 6-3 over Aswin Lizen.
The Hokies trailed 3-2 with two matches still on as Donato and Jason Kros both went into third sets.
On court four, Donato got the first set 7-5 over Ryan Goetz, but the UVA player answered to win the second by the same tally. In the final set, the two kept it close before Goetz got the break to go ahead before winning it 6-3 to clinch the match for the 'Hoos.
Jason Kros, ranked No. 71, rallied after dropping the first set 6-1 to No. 5 Carl Soderlund. In the second set, Kros forced the tiebreak before taking the set 7-6(6). The two were tied at 4 in the third set, but the match went unfinished once the final was decided.
The Hokies will be back on the court this week at the 2019 ACC Men's Tennis Championship in Cary, North Carolina. Tech enters the week as the 8-seed for the conference championshp and will play 9th-seeded Notre Dame at 9 a.m. on Thursday, April 19.
Singles
1. #71 Jason Kros (VT) vs. #5 Carl Soderlund (VA) 1-6, 7-6(6), 4-4 dnf
2. #75 Brandon Nakashima (VA) def. Henrik Korsgaard (VT) 6-3, 6-4
3. Henrik Wiersholm (VA) def. Alex Ribeiro (VT) 7-6(2), 6-4
4. Ryan Goetz (VA) def. Carlo Donato (VT) 5-7, 7-5, 6-3
5. Gianni Ross (VA) def. Brandon Perez (VT) 6-4, 6-4
6. Evan Fragistas (VT) def. Aswin Lizen (VA) 7-5, 6-3
Order of finish: 2,5,3,6,4
Doubles
1. Ryan Kros/Korsgaard (VT) def. Soderlund/Matthew Lord (VA) 6-4
2. #54 Wiersholm/Nakashima (VA) def. J. Kros/Perez (VT) 6-3
3. Donato/Ribeiro (VT) def. Ross/Lizen (VA) 6-3
Order of finish: 2,3,1