Sports > October 23, 2008

By Alex Botoman | Staff writer

Senior Cory Parr reached the finals of the singles draw, spearheading a good effort by the men’s tennis team at the ITA Mideast Regional Championships, held in Chapel Hill, N.C., Oct. 16-20. The Deacons went a combined 12-7 in singles play and 2-3 in doubles.

Parr, who is ranked No. 24 in the country, was the No. 2 seed in the singles draw, and he played up to his seeding, advancing to the finals before falling to the top seed, Dom Inglot of Virginia.

In his first match against Virginia Tech’s Luka Somen, Parr started out shakily, dropping the first set, but he quickly rallied to shut out Somen the rest of the match, winning 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.

His next opponent, David Holland of Duke, failed to win a game, as Parr easily cruised to the next round, 6-0, 6-0.

In the Round of 16, he faced No. 79 Ivan Salec of Radford. Once again Parr advanced with little resistance, winning 6-2, 6-3. His quarterfinal opponent was another Virginia Tech player, Pedro Graber. Parr took a close first set, and then he ran away with the second set, winning 6-4, 6-1.

In the semifinals, Parr came up against No. 75 Houston Barrick of Virginia and easily defeated him, 6-2, 6-3. However, Parr’s run ended in the finals against Inglot, another Cavalier. Inglot dominated the first set and won it easily. Parr put up more of a fight in the second, but it wasn’t enough, and he fell 6-1, 6-4.

“Inglot is a great player who plays a huge game indoors,” Parr said. “He was serving really well, making it almost impossible to break him.”

Parr partnered with junior Steve Forman to make up the top-seeded doubles team in the draw. The tandem, who are ranked No. 2 in the country, easily dispatched teams from Duke and N.C. State in their first two matches.

However, they were upset in the quarterfinals, losing 8-9, to the No. 33-ranked team of Barrick and Sanam Singh from Virginia. Barrick and Singh went on to win the doubles championship.

“During that match we had two match points,” Parr said. “I just think we have been unlucky in not taking advantage of some opportunities we have had.”

Six other Deacons also took part in the tournament. Forman, ranked No. 38 in the country, was the No. 4 seed in the singles draw. He won his first match, 6-3, 6-4, against Miguel Muguruza of Georgia Tech, but he was upset in the next round by No. 119 Maciek Sykut of Florida State, 6-3, 6-4.

Junior Andrew Brasseaux won a three-setter against Richard Wardell of William & Mary, but he fell in his next match to Aleksandr Seleznev of Old Dominion.

Sophomore Jon Wolff won two matches in the qualifying draw to make it into the main draw. In his first match in the main draw against FSU’s Chris Cloer, he fell behind 1-3, but he regrouped to win the next eight games, finishing off 6-3, 6-4.

However, in the next round he fell to Virginia’s Lee Singer in a very tight match, 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-7(5). Freshman David Hopkins also qualified for the main draw, and he won his first round in three sets before losing to Kiril Dimitrov of Duke. Junior Jason Morgenstern lost his first match to Duke’s Jared Pinsky.

By virtue of making it to the singles final, Parr qualified for the ITA National Indoor Championships, held in Charlottesville, Va., Nov. 6-9.

“Reaching the National Indoors for singles is an honor,” Parr said. “It is by far the hardest tournament in college tennis to get into. Steve and I have our fingers crossed and hopefully will get in (to the doubles draw). With our ranking, however, there are no guarantees.”