Sports > April 26, 2007
Men’s tennis team unable to take down Virginia
By Michael Parker | Staff writer
The No. 14 Wake Forest men’s tennis team (21-6), seeded fourth in the ACC Tournament, defeated fifth seeded Clemson on April 20, 4-2, in Cary N.C., but was unable to get past the semifinal round, falling to top seeded Virginia, 4-0, on April 22.
The loss against Virginia was the Deacons’ third straight in postseason play.
Against Clemson, Wake came out strong, winning the doubles point and the first two singles matches to go up 3-0, with All-ACC selections senior Todd Paul and sophomore Cody Parr winning their matches.
With his victory over Clement Reix, Paul became Wake’s all time wins leader, with 107 for his career.
Paul was recently named first team All-ACC, his fourth straight selection to the team.
Despite their early lead, Clemson rallied, winning two singles matches to come within one point of the Deacons. Junior Mariusz Adamski ended Clemson’s comeback, rallying to win 0-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Wake’s win was sweet revenge for the Deacons, as Clemson had defeated them just 13 days earlier, 4-3.
Next up for Wake was No. 2 Virginia, who held six straight wins over Wake and earlier defeated the Deacs, 4-2, at Wake Forest.
Once again, Virginia knew how to handle Wake Forest, capturing the doubles point despite early Wake leads in all three matches.
Paul and Adamski, No. 12 in the country, fell to the No. 2 Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey, snapping their six-match winning streak.
In singles, Wake was unable to rebound from their doubles collapse, and Virginia was able to win in straight sets in three matches.
Virginia defeated Wake 4-0, and extended their winning streak over Wake to seven matches.
Wake’s straight set defeats at the number one, two and six positions were the first of their kind all season.
Despite their loss in the ACC tournament, Wake is expected to receive an at-large bid to this year’s NCAA tournament.
The tournament selections will be announced at 2:30 p.m. on May 2 on ESPNEWS.
The final rounds of the tournament will take place in Athens, Ga.