March 6, 2005
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Virginia Tech claimed four single matches to hand the Hurricanes a 4-3 loss Sunday afternoon in a grueling four-hour contest at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center Sunday afternoon in UM’s inaugural ACC opener.
With the loss to fellow ACC newcomers Virginia Tech (7-4, 2-1 ACC) – both teams were members of the BIG EAST conference prior to joining the ACC in the summer of 2004 – the Hurricanes (7-2, 0-1 ACC) suffer their first loss in six matches and just their second defeat of the season.
The Hurricanes took the doubles point from the Hokies with an 8-4 win by UM’s tandem of Eric Hecthman and Josh Cohen at No.1 over Stephane Rod and Alexei Sergeev and a 8-3 victory by Tim Krebs and Vivek Subramanian at No. 2 over Tech’s Brent Wilkins and Angel Diankov.
With UM heading into singles with a 1-0 advantage, Cohen, ranked 54th nationally in singles, cruised past Puranen in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, in the No. 1 spot to quickly put the Hurricanes up at 2-0.
Virginia Tech’s Adel Abbas gave the Hokies’ their first point of the day with a straight-set, 6-3, 6-3, win over Ryan Waits at No. 6 and Tech’s Rod finished next, downing Krebs, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 2, tying the overall match score at two-all.
Subramanian rebounded from a 6-4 first-set loss to Sergeev at No. 5 to win 6-3 in the second, but couldn’t hold on, falling in the third set, 6-3, putting Virginia Tech up 3-2.
Hechtman, however, was able to build on a second-set, 7-5, win over Larregola, winning, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, at No. 3 to tie the match once at three-all.
The seventh and final point came down to the No. 4 spot where UM’s John Hoyes and the Hokies’ Diankov battled in a back-and-forth three-set match. Diankov, who rallied from a 5-2 second set deficit to win, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, was able to clinch the match for Virginia Tech, snapping UM’s six-match win streak.
The Hurricanes will return to action Wednesday, March 9 when they host Wake Forest at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center at 6 p.m.