No. 6 Duke Falls 5-2 in Regular Season Finale Against No. 11 Virginia

Sunday, April 16

Durham, N.C.

1 p.m.

Duke University

Virginia

No. 6 Duke Falls 5-2 in Regular Season Finale Against No. 11 Virginia

4/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

Durham, N.C. - No. 6 Duke suffered a 5-2 loss against No. 11 Virginia on Senior Day at Ambler Tennis Stadium. The match was the last of the regular season for both squads as the Blue Devils finish 17-6 on the year and 9-2 in the ACC while the Cavaliers improve to 19-7 overall and 9-2 in conference play.

Duke got off to a good start with two close wins in the No. 2 and 3 doubles matches to take the doubles point. Ned Samuelson and Ludovic Walter won 8-6 against Darrin Cohen and Doug Stewart in the third spot. Samuelson and Walter finished the season with an 8-3 record in ACC contests and 12-6 mark in dual matches. In the No. 1 doubles match, the 27th-ranked duo of Nick Meythaler and Rylan Rizza tied the match up for Virginia with an 8-6 win over No. 50 Joey Atas and Jonathan Stokke. The loss was just the third of the ACC season for Atas and Stokke as they fall to 8-3 and 24-9 on the year. No. 57 Stephen Amritraj and Peter Rodrigues clinched the point with an 8-6 win over Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey. Amritraj and Rodrigues only lost one out of 11 ACC matches as they are 10-1 in the conference and 13-5 in all dual matches.

Virginia came out strong in the singles matches with wins in the first set of five of the six matches. No. 53 Huey brought the Cavaliers even with Duke when he closed out his match in straight sets against Atas 6-4, 6-3. Atas dropped to 7-3 in ACC matches and 12-7 in dual contests. No. 67 Rylan Rizza then gave Virginia the lead when he upset No. 4 Walter in the No. 1 match 6-3, 6-2. The loss was the third of the year in conference for Walter as he drops to 8-3. He is now 16-6 when playing at No. 1 this season and 26-11 overall. Marko Miklo put the Cavaliers ahead 3-1 with a 7-6 (10-8), 6-1 win over Amritraj at No. 5.

Devvarman, ranked No. 9 in the country, lost the first set 7-5 to No. 37 Stokke, but rallied to win the final two sets by the score of 6-1, 6-1 to clinch the match for Virginia. No. 91 Stewart capped off the 5-2 win with a No. 70 Rodrigues. It was just the second loss of the year in a dual match for Rodrigues as he fell to 20-2 and 9-2 in the ACC. He is now 26-8 overall for the season.

The only win in singles for the Blue Devils came at the No. 6 spot. The match was retired in the third set with No. 111 Kiril Dimitrov defeating Cohen 3-6, 7-6, 3-0. Dimitrov finished his first season in the ACC with a record of 7-3 and improved to 13-7 in dual matches.

Duke concludes the regular season in a three-way tie with Virginia and Miami for first in the ACC. The seedings for the ACC Tournament will be released on Monday morning. The conference tournament will take place April 20-24 in Cary, N.C.

April 16, 2006 - Durham, N.C. (1 p.m.)
Ambler Tennis Stadium

No. 6 Duke
2

vs.

No. 11 Virginia 5

Singles
1.		3	2	3
Duke	#4 Ludovic Walter	3	2	-
UVA	#67 Rylan Rizza	6	6	-
2.		1	2	3
Duke	#37 Jonathan Stokke	7	1	1
UVA	#9 Somdev Devvarman	5	6	6*
3.		1	2	3
Duke	#70 Peter Rodrigues	2	6	3
UVA	#91 Doug Stewart	6	2	6
4.		1	2	3
Duke	Joey Atas	4	3	-
UVA	#53 Treat Huey	6	6	-
5.		1	2	3
Duke	Stephen Amritraj	6	1	-
UVA	Marko Miklo	7	6	-
6.		1	2	3
Duke	#111 Kiril Dimitrov	3	7	3 Ret.
UVA	Darrin Cohen	6	6	0

Doubles
1.		1
Duke	#50 Atas & Stokke	6
UVA	#27 Meythaler & Rizza	8
2.		1
Duke	#57 Amritraj & Rodrigues	8
UVA	Devvarman & Huey	6
3.		1
Duke	Samuelson & Walter	8
UVA	Cohen & Stewart	6