Miami Advances To Its First ACC Championship Match
April 19, 2008
<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – For the second time in as many days, the seventh-seeded University of Miami men’s tennis team pulled off a dramatic upset at the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, beating third-seeded Florida State, 4-3, Saturday at Sanlando Park to advance into its first ever ACC title match. The Hurricanes (16-6) will be facing top-seeded and top-ranked Virginia (27-0) – a team that has reached the finals five straight seasons — in Sunday’s championship match at 11 a.m.
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Less than 24 hours after knocking off second-seeded North Carolina in a match that lasted nearly five hours, No. 25 UM played another long, highly-contested match with FSU (19-5) that saw half of the singles matches reach a third set.
With Miami ahead, 3-2, the match came down to the wire in the top two positions where No. 3 Daniel Vallverdu battled No. 19 Jean-Yves Aubone at No. 1 and senior Vivek Subramanian was up against No. 81 Sammy Chang. The Hurricanes, needing just one more point to secure the victory, battled the Seminoles on two courts side-by-side as spectators locked into the matches – the last two in progress Saturday — at the back of SanlandoPark’s tennis complex.
Vallverdu and Aubone battled back and forth in the third set, as they had been doing all afternoon long, before Aubone prevailed with a 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-4 win to even the score. Just minutes later, Subramanian, who had fallen behind 5-2 in the third set, mounted a late comeback against Chang to come away with a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-5 victory to send UM into Sunday’s title match.
“It was such a special moment for a special team,” head coach Mario Rincon said. “All the hard work we have put in is paying off at the right time, and for Vivek to be the guy who put us in the championship match, it just makes it even more meaningful.”
With the win, Subramanian – UM’s lone senior – avenged a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 loss against Chang in FSU’s 5-2 win over UM March 15 in Coral Gables. The victory was Miami’s seventh straight win and first against FloridaState since the `Canes beat the Seminoles, 7-0, Jan. 30, 2006 in Coral Gables. It was also Miami’s first semifinal win in the conference championship since the school joined the ACC in 2004-05.
“Moments like this don’t come around very often,” Rincon added.
Miami went up early on after winning the top two doubles positions, 8-6 and 8-5. Chris Cloer gave FSU its first point with a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 6 over J.C. Whitner before Clint Bowles put the Seminoles up 2-1 with a 7-6 (1), 6-2 win over David Rosenfeld at No. 3. Carl Sundberg then won his third straight match at the championship, beating Maciek Sykut, 6-4, 6-3, to even the score at two.
The Hurricanes’ third point was just as crucial as Subramanian’s clincher. After dropping the first set to Bradley Mixson, 6-3, Keith Crowley fell behind in a second-set tie-breaker, 5-0, before rallying to win nine of the next 11 points to force a third set. At one point during the tiebreaker, Mixson was just a point away from clinching his match, and ultimately assuring an FSU win, but Crowley was able to stay alive. From there, Crowley’s momentum carried over into the deciding set where he shutout Mixson, 6-0, to put UM a point away from the win.
The Hurricanes will now turn their attention to undefeated UVa. Miami lost to its meeting earlier this year with the Cavaliers, 7-0, when the two teams met in Charlottesville on March 28.
“We talked about getting to Sunday all week,” Rincon said. “I have no doubt that our team will be ready to go against Virginia. We’re going to give them a run for their money.”
Click here for complete coverage of the ACC Men’s Tennis Championship. Action from Altamonte Springs will be made available On-Demand every night of the championship at 8 p.m. on www.ACCSelect.com. Visit www.hurricanesports.com for live results of Sunday’s match between the Hurricanes and the Cavaliers.
No. 7 Miami 4, No. 3 FloridaState 3
Singles
1. No. 19 Jean-Yves Aubone (FSU) def. No. 3 Daniel Vallverdu (UM), 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-4
2. Vivek Subramanian (UM) def. No. 84 Sam Chang (FSU), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-5
3. No. 75 Clint Bowles (FSU) def. David Rosenfeld (UM), 7-6 (1), 6-2
4. Carl Sundberg (UM) def. Maciek Sykut (FSU), 6-4, 6-3
5. Keith Crowley (UM) def. Bradley Mixson (FSU), 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-0
6. J.C. Whitner (UM) Chris Cloer (FSU), 6-3, 7-5
Order of Finish: 6, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2*
Doubles
1. No. 7 Daniel Vallverdu/Carl Sundberg (UM) def. No. 15 Jean-Yves Aubone/Clint Bowles (FSU), 8-6
2. No. 49 David Rosenfeld/Vivek Subramanian (UM) def. Sam Chang/Maciek Sykut (FSU), 8-5
3. Keith Crowley/Hector Nieto (UM) vs. David Stone/Tristan Heinrich (UNC), DNF
Order of Finish: 1, 2*
