Tennessee Edges Men's Tennis in NCAA Tournament
May 11, 2007
COLUMBUS, OHIO – The No. 34 University of Miami men’s tennis team won the top-three singles matches, but it wasn’t enough as 25th-ranked Tennessee edged the Hurricanes, 4-3, to knock Miami out of the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening at Ohio State’s Stickney Tennis Center.
The Volunteers (17-7) earned the hard-fought doubles point as the 17th-ranked duo of Bobby Cameron and Kaden Hensel upset Miami’s fifth-ranked tandem of seniors Luigi D’Agord (Freeport, Bahamas) and Josh Cohen (Weston, Fla./Laurel Springs), 9-8, in the decisive top-flight doubles match.
But D’Agord came firing back in singles competition, as the nation’s ninth-ranked player used straight sets to knock off 17th-ranked Hensel in the No. 1 position to get the `Canes (11-14) on the board and knot the first-round match 1-all.
The teams went on to trade points, as Miami’s 53rd-ranked sophomore Daniel Vallverdu (Valencia, Venezuela) picked up a straight sets victory over 46th-ranked Cameron and Cohen bounced back from a first-set defeat to upset Tennessee’s No. 106 Davey Sandgren.
But with the match tied at 3-3, it came down to the No. 6 singles competition between a pair of freshmen in Miami’s Barnabas Carrega (Basiglio, Italy) and Tennessee’s Chris Racz. Racz rolled to a 6-2 first-set win, but Carrega forced a third set with a 7-5 victory in the second. But Racz clinched the match for the Vols with a 6-2 third-set win.
“We had plenty of chances to win the doubles point, but Tennessee played better on the big points,” said third-year head coach Mario Rincon, who led Miami to its second-straight NCAA appearance and 42nd in the last 49 years. “Our seniors and Danny picked up important wins for us in singles, but we just came up short in the bottom half of the lineup.”
“It’s unfortunate that our season is over now,” added assistant coach C.J. Weber. “I feel like our younger guys have been getting better each time we played. But Tennessee is a solid team and played well today.”
“I didn’t want the season to end,” said D’Agord. “I have such a great time around my teammates and coaches. But, it has been a great experience for me to play college tennis at Miami and I will certainly miss it.”
Tennessee advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday to face second-seeded host Ohio State, who defeated No. 67 Columbia, 4-0, on Friday.
Although the Hurricanes close team competition with Friday’s loss, Miami will continue its postseason with competitors in the NCAA singles and doubles championships in Athens, Ga., from May 23-28.
D’Agord, the two-time ACC Player of the Year, and Vallverdu are among the 64 student-athletes selected to compete in the individual competition, while the fifth-ranked doubles tandem of D’Agord and Cohen is among 34 duos slated to compete in the doubles competition.
#25 Tennessee 4, #34 Miami 3
Singles
1. No. 9 Luigi D’Agord (UM) def. No. 17 Kaden Hensel (UT), 6-4, 6-3
2. No. 53 Daniel Vallverdu (UM) def. No. 46 Bobby Cameron (UT), 6-2, 7-5
3. Josh Cohen (UM) def. No. 106 Davey Sandgren (UT), 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
4. Kiril Tcherveniachki (UT) def. Vivek Subramanian (UM), 7-6, 6-4
5. Ben Rogers (UT) def. J.C. Whitner (UM), 6-3, 6-1
6. Chris Racz (UT) def. Barnabas Carrega (UM), 6-2, 5-7, 6-2
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 2, 4, 3, 6*
Doubles
1. No. 17 Bobby Cameron/Kaden Hensel (UT) def. No. 5 Luigi D’Agord/Josh Cohen (UM), 9-8
2. Daniel Vallverdu/Vivek Subramanian (UM) vs. No. 29 Adam Hubble/Ben Rogers (UT), 7-7 (DNF)
3. Bo Hardegree/Davey Sandgren (UT) def. J.C. Whitner/Hector Nieto (UM), 8-2
Order of Finish: 3, 1*
