Miami Duo's 'Great Season' Comes to an End in Sweet 16
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The University of Miami men’s tennis 2018 season officially came to a close Friday afternoon, as senior Christian Langmo and freshman Adria Soriano were edged by Florida’s Duarte Vale and McClain Kessler, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), in the Round of 16 of the NCAA Doubles Championship in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Early breaks in each set at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex were not enough for the 30th-ranked Hurricanes duo (7-8), who led going into 13 of the 26 games of the contest. The Gators’ 36th-ranked tandem only led on three occasions mid-match.
Langmo and Soriano, who dominated Miami’s No. 1 doubles position after debuting together in mid-March, wrap up the season with a 5-2 record against ranked opponents, including four triumphs against top-40 opposition, three against top-20 duos and a pair of top-15 wins.
“It has been a good run and a great season for those two guys and for us as a team,” Miami assistant coach Petar Danolic said. “We had our opportunities today. We were up a break in both sets, but we didn’t take advantage of that. I thought that the guys played well. Florida was very solid on big points and didn’t give us anything.”
The Hurricanes enjoyed a dream start to the match, breaking Kessler and Vale to 15 in the very first game to grab a hold of the momentum. At the same time, the Canes continued serving well as they did in the opening round and gave up a total of only four points on its first three serves to go up 4-2 in the opening set.
Florida’s representatives, however, responded by winning four points on Miami’s eighth-game serve alone to return the break and tie up the set at 4-4. Kessler and Vale then followed up with a comfortable hold of their own to grab their first lead of afternoon.
Miami stayed on track with two holds of extremely different fashion – one to love for 5-5 and a deuce one for 6-6 – and forced a tiebreaker in which, however, UF won the first three points to ultimately prevail 7-5.
The Hurricanes came out of the mid-set break swinging and built a 2-0 cushion with a convincing hold to 15 and a break to 30 in the following game. Miami then had a great opportunity to further gain control of the set, but could not capitalize on a 40-30 advantage on its own serve, as Kessler and Vale scored back-to-back points to snatch the deuce break and get on the board in the second set, 2-1.
Following holds from each team, Miami was closest to what would be a decisive break by forcing the Gators to a deuce in game six, but Kessler and Vale responded to pressure appropriately by catching Langmo off guard on the back line with a second-serve ace to get back on level terms, 3-3.
Neither duo gave up more than two points on its serve for the following six games and hence the second set went to a tiebreaker as well. As it had been in the entire contest, it came down to the duos’ serving game. Soriano and Langmo won back-to-back points on their serving sequence to cut Florida’s lead to 5-4, but could not threaten Kessler and Vale’s serves that followed and the Gators closed out the match in straight sets.
“We could have executed better in some key moments, but we didn’t,” Danolic said. “Overall, I am very proud of Christian and Adri. [Advancing to the] Round of 16 at the NCAA tournament is a great accomplishment. It has been a pleasure coaching these guys throughout the season.”
Soriano and Langmo capitalized on two of their four break opportunities in the contest, while Vale and Kessler, who will face No. 25 Martin Joyce and Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State in the national quarterfinals, went two-of-three on the day.
The Gators doubled up the Canes duo in aces, 4-2, while the two tandems recorded three double faults apiece in the match.
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FRIDAY RESULTS
Round of 16
No. 36 Duarte Vale/McClain Kessler (UF) def. No. 30 Christian Langmo/Adria Soriano (UM), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4)
