There weren’t many aspects about the Virginia men’s tennis team’s 5-2 bludgeoning of Mercer on Friday that weren’t foreign.
It started with the Bears’ head coach, Eric Hayes, who sported a Tampa Bay Buccaneers hoodie with a baseball cap that hardly covered his long, wavy, gray hair. His team’s play reflected his eccentric look — flamboyant, non-conformist and a little ferocious.
Six of the 10 players on Mercer’s roster were from other countries, and with Friday’s match being the first time either team has played the other, Virginia’s first matchup after an 11-day hiatus promised quite a Friday morning.
The tennis might’ve been the only recognizable thing for the Wahoos, which was more than enough in closing out what has been an indoor season to remember at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.
“What I’m most proud of is our practices have really gotten better as time goes on,” head coach Andres Pedroso said. “They were good before, but everyone’s super engaged in practice.
“We’ve made some adjustments in how we structure practice, so we’ve gotten more individual attention to each guy, been able to work on more specifics. I see it on the court — guys are starting to find their identity out there and understanding how they need to play.”
The Cavaliers (6-3) decided to begin their weekend with a clean go of things, winning the doubles point and then three consecutive matches to take away any potential pressure from the Southern Conference-represented Bears.
Freshman Matthew Lord began the morning with a 6-0, 6-3 scorching at No. 2 singles, while fellow freshman Gianni Ross saw early difficulty against Sam Philp over at No. 1.
Errant shots and seemingly problematic trends riddled Ross’ match early, but he rebounded from a 5-2 deficit in the first set to clinch a 7-6 (6) win.
“The guy played good the first couple of games, actually, he was playing very good tennis,” Ross said of Philp. “I was kind of worried in my head, at one point, that he might win the first set. I just kept fighting, he broke down a little, I had a couple chances that I took, and it kind of switched.”
That switch, according to Ross, was at 3-5 in the first set. After the tiebreak victory, Philp seemed to dissipate from the exploits of his intensified competitor, losing 6-1.
Ross improved his record to 7-1 this season in singles. That tally hasn’t been achieved without some adjustment, even with his gilded ranking as one of the top juniors in the country prior to coming to UVa.
But as a 19-year-old playing collegiate tennis with the defending national champions, it’s been quite the life for the recent Virginia signee.
“This place is really fun,” Ross said of the university. “I think playing college tennis is really important for anybody’s development as a tennis player. I’ve played in some pretty cool places with a lot of fans, but nothing compares to playing for UVa.”
The matches on either side him had already finished, the lower courts in control and his team only needing one more point to seal the match. Obviously, there wasn’t too much pressure for junior Aswin Lizen at No. 2 singles.
The No. 18-ranked Lizen has fallen into the routine of allowing his opponents the opportunity to stay in the match a lot longer than someone would assume. Against Mercer’s Olivier Stuart, Lizen spent the first set dissecting Stuart’s every move — his tendencies, strengths, weakness and everything in between.
Lizen saw a 7-5 win to begin the first set, and by the time the second had commenced, he was fully warm. Pedroso observed the match from the sidelines, with the two exchanging sentence-long soliloquies in Spanish to communicate what next move was best.
“I think he spent four years in Spain training, so he’s used to that, and I think he likes it. I think it motivates him, I think it brings him back to those days — he loved his time over there,” Pedroso said. “As a coach, you just try and do whatever you think is going to connect with the player, and I think speaking Spanish helps.”
As Lizen continued to rattle of point after point, the only understandable phrase he uttered was “mucho,” meaning “more,” which he would spout off after each one of his tailing, inside-out forehands.
A second-set snoozer — Lizen lulled Stuart to a 6-1 sleep for the match victory.
Virginia has officially played its last match of both the indoor season and last home match until March 16 against Boston College. With three consecutive road tests, including matches against Louisville and No. 7 Illinois, the nine straight previous home matches seem like a long time ago.
“We’ve got good momentum, we’ve got some confidence from these last three matches,” Pedroso added about the team. “They weren’t easy, but we’ve got some good tests — two really good tests in Louisville and Illinois — so we’re looking forward to it. We’re going to give it our all.”
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