Miami Posts First Upset at ACC Men's Tennis Championship :: Florida State, Virginia and Wake Forest also advance to semifinals on Saturday.

April 18, 2008

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - Three of the four top seeds in the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Tennis Championship will move into Saturday's semifinal round at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla. Florida State, Miami, Virginia and Wake Forest each secured victories to advance to the round of four with the Hurricanes recording the first upset at this year's tournament.

Saturday's showdown will feature Wake Forest and Virginia at 10 a.m., while Miami and Florida State square off at 1 p.m. in the other semifinal match. Wake Forest and Virginia meet in the semifinals for the second straight year and third time in the last four years.

Miami and Florida State have long been in-state rivals, but the two teams will battle for a spot in Sunday's championship title match for the first time in ACC Tournament.

ACC Player of the Year Somdev Devvarman of Virginia got the day rolling, as he clinched the match to give the top-seeded Cavaliers a 4-1 victory over eight-seeded NC State. Virginia held a 2-0 advantage after winning the doubles point and Houston Barrick posting a 6-2, 6-0 victory over NC State's David Chermak at No. 6 singles. The Wolfpack closed in on the lead as All-ACC pick Sanam Signh defeated Virginia's Jay Weinacker at court three, but the Cavaliers picked up two more singles win at Nos. 1 and 5 to end the match.

Competition heated up on the courts, along with the weather Friday. Both of the afternoon matches started on time, but came down to the wire as No. 4 seed Wake Forest notched a 4-2 win over fifth-seeded Virginia Tech and No. 7 seed Miami upended No. 2 seed North Carolina for a thrilling 4-3 victory.

Wake Forest and Miami each won the doubles point in their respective matches but the battle turned into a back-and-forth affair in singles. With both matches locked in a tie, Cory Parr of Wake Forest and Barnabas Carrega from Miami each went three sets to clinch the key win for their teams. Parr posted a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win over Virginia Tech's Nicolas Delgado de Robles at No. 2, while Carrega rallied from a first-set loss to defeat UNC's Will Plyler at the No. 6 spot. The match between Carrega and Plyler officially took three hours and seven minutes to complete.

No. 3 seed Florida State closed out quarterfinal action with a 4-0 shut out over sixth-seeded Duke. The Seminoles clinched the doubles point and collected wins at Nos. 1, 3 and 5 singles.

Coverage of the ACC Men's Tennis Championship will be made available On-Demand every night (April 18-20) by 9 p.m. on ACC Select.

Friday, April 18 - Quarterfinal Results
#1 Virginia def. #8 NC State, 4-1
#4 Wake Forest def. #5 Virginia Tech, 4-3
#7 Miami def. #2 North Carolina, 4-3
#3 Florida State def. #6 Duke, 4-0

Saturday, April 19 - Semifinal Matches
#4 Wake Forest vs. #1 Virginia - 10:00 a.m.
#7 Miami vs. #3 Florida State - 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 20 - Final
Championship Match - 11:00 a.m.