TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Virginia Tech men's tennis team dropped a hard-fought match, 4-2 on to Alabama on Sunday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Tech (1-2) fell behind after giving up the doubles point with the Tide clinching the matches on courts two and three.
Alabama went up 3-0 with wins on courts four and six, but Carlo Donato got the Hokies on the board with a win at five. After falling behind 3-0 in the opening set, Donato rallied to win it 6-4 over Patrick Kaukovalta. In the second set, Donato took the set 6-3.
Mitch Harper gave the Hokies another point as he knocked off No. 96 Riccardo Roberto on court two with straight set scores of 6-2, 6-4.
Henrik Korsgaard and Alex Ribeiro forced third sets in their matches on courts one and three, respectively. Korsgaard battled against Edson Ortiz, giving up the first set 6-4. The Tech senior rallied to take the second set 6-3. In the final set, the two were tied at 5-5, but Ortiz clinched the team win for the Tide 7-5.
The Hokies will be back on the court Feb. 2 when they travel to Tulane.
Singles
1. Edson Ortiz (UA) def. Henrik Korsgaard (VT) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
2. Mitch Harper (VT) def. #96 Riccardo Roberto (UA) 6-2, 6-4
3. Zhe Zhou (UA) vs. Alex Ribeiro (VT) 6-1, 5-7, 5-4 dnf
4. Alexey Nesterov (UA) def. Brandon Perez (VT) 6-1, 6-2
5. Carlo Donato (VT) def. Patrick Kaukovalta (UA) 6-4, 6-3
6. Jeremy Gschwendtner (UA) def. Matthis Ross (VT) 6-2, 6-2
Order of finish: 4,6,5,2,1
Doubles
1. Kaukovalta/Ortiz (UA) vs. Korsgaard/Ribeiro (VT) 5-3 dnf
2. #40 Nesterov/Roberto (UA) def. Perez/Ryan Kros (VT) 6-3
3. Marcelo Sepulveda/Zhou (UA) def. Donato/Harper (VT) 6-4
Order of finish: 2,3