Virginia continues march to perfection

TULSA, Okla. — On Sunday, chants of “UVa!” pierced through the Michael D. Case Tennis Center moments before Virginia’s Dom Inglot prepared to return a second serve from Baylor’s David Galic.

Inglot had battled Galic tooth and nail for over two hours in the blistering Oklahoma sun.

Alas, it was match point.

Just before Galic served, the sweat-drenched Inglot, sporting a new beard, whispered to himself.

“This is it,” the London, England native said.

Inglot was right.

Galic’s serve clipped the top of the net. When the ball failed to trickle over, Inglot was mobbed on the court by his teammates. Galic’s double-fault had given him a hard-earned 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 win.

More importantly, it clinched a 4-2 Virginia victory and moved the Cavaliers into the NCAA Tournament semifinals against Georgia tonight at 5 p.m.

The Bulldogs, who defeated Virginia in last year’s semifinals, are the reigning NCAA champions.

“We have great respect for Georgia,” said Virginia coach Brian Boland. “They’ve been here a number of times. We’re looking forward to it. I know our guys are excited about it.

“We’ve been here before. I think there’s nothing like having that experience. Hopefully it gives the edge we need [today].”

It certainly gave Inglot an advantage on Sunday. Playing at No. 3 singles, the junior did a great job of hanging tough after dropping a first-set tiebreaker.

“I felt as soon as I got the break in the second set that the set would go my way and the momentum would be with me in the third set,” Inglot said. “I felt confident.”

That was good news for Virginia because if Inglot had lost, the Cavs’ entire season would have come down to the No. 6 singles match between UVa’s Teddy Angelinos and Baylor’s Jordan Rux. That match was tied at 2 in the third set when Inglot clinched.

“I just tried to stay focused on my match and not think about what it was going to mean,” Inglot said. “It’s tough not to pay attention that you might clinch, but I had full confidence that Teddy was going to clinch it if I didn’t.”

The match with Baylor was Virginia’s stiffest test in more than a month. UVa (32-0), the only undefeated team in the country, hadn’t dropped two matches since a 5-2 win over N.C. State on Apr. 11, and hadn’t lost a match in its first three NCAA Tournament victories.

“We expected [Baylor] to be a tough match, and certainly we got everything that we expected,” said Boland, whose team had defeated an injury-riddled Bears squad, 7-0, in Charlottesville on March 1. “I was really pleased with our overall effort. The guys fought hard.”

Virginia got off to a good start, winning the doubles point.

Playing at No. 3, Houston Barrick and Sanam Singh came up big. The turning point of their 8-3 victory came when they were serving at 3-2. Rux and Dominik Mueller looked like they were going to break, but Barrick and Singh fended them off. They won the game and went on to take four of the next five games.

Their victory was huge because a few courts over Inglot and Michael Shabaz were losing 7-3.

Luckily, Devvarman and Huey were able to defeat Galic and Denes Lukacs to clinch the point.

In singles, Devvarman — as has been the case all season — was on his game. The senior co-captain was machine-like in disposing of Lars Poerschke, 6-3, 6-2.

“I think I’ve been getting better as the tournament has gone on,” Devvarman said. “It feels good. I think Poerschke played really well. I think he was a hurting a little bit which I took advantage of.”

After freshman Michael Shabaz won in straight sets, the match momentarily took a turn for the worse for Virginia when Treat Huey and Sanam Singh lost at No. 2 and No. 4, respectively.

That’s what made Inglot’s performance so crucial.

“I couldn’t be more proud of Dom,” Boland said. “He’s had a great couple weeks of practice and I think he’s at the top of his game now.

“I feel the same way about the rest of the team…we’re peaking.”