April 8, 2005

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech's No. 45 men's tennis team (13-6, 4-3 ACC) dropped its third Atlantic Coast Conference match of the season to No. 21 Florida State (14-6, 5-2 ACC), 5-2, at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center today.

"Florida State played well today. They seemed prepared and well coached," stated Hokie seventh-year head coach Jim Thompson. "Our guys had several chances to win. Albert Larregola won in straight sets, Arvid Puranen came back from a bad second set and Angel Diankov lost in a tiebreaker. As a team we are in a good place. We just have to get over this loss and work hard to win our next couple of conference matches to position ourselves well for the upcoming ACC Tournament."

Tech had a hard time playing doubles against two ITA top-50 ranked teams from FSU. Diankov/Wilkins fell to the 31^st-ranked pair of Cloer/Abougzir, 8-3, in the No. 2 match. At No. 3 Rod/Sergeev lost an 8-4 battle over the 44^th-ranked duo of Groslimond/Westerhof. Hokies Puranen/Larregola then dropped their No. 1 match to Sucupira/Chang, 8-5.

The match didn't get an easier for the Hokies in the singles play. Stephane Rod (Sr., Lausanne, Switzerland), who is ranked 79^th by the ITA this week, lost, 6-4, 6-1, to 32^nd-ranked Matt Cloer in the top position. Adel Abbas (Sr., Cairo, Egypt) dropped his No. 6 match to Chip Webb, 6-1, 6-2, which put the Seminoles up 3-0. Angel Diankov (Sr., Yonkers, N.Y.) lost the tiebreaker to Johnathas Sucupira in the No. 4 match. Sucupira sealed the victory for the Seminoles (4-0).

At No. 4, Albert Larregola (Fr., Lleida, Spain) got Tech on the board (4-1) with his 6-3, 7-5 win over Chris Westerhof. Larregola earned his 13^th dual and third ACC win of the season. Alexey Sergeev (Fr., Moscow, Russia) battled his way through three-sets but lost to Jeff Groslimond in the No. 5 position. No. 111 Arvid Puranen (So., Lulea, Sweden) also fought hard in three-sets to pick up his fourth conference win of the year by defeating Ytai Aougzir, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, at No. 2.

The Hokies next host No. 24 Clemson in an ACC match on Monday, April, 11 at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center. Live scoring for the match is available at http://www.hokiesports.com/mtennis/live/.

No. 21 Florida State 5, No. 45 Virginia Tech 2

Singles

1. No. 32 Matt Cloer (FSU) def. No. 79 Stephane Rod (VT), 6-4, 6-1

2. No. 111 Arvid Puranen (VT) def. Ytai Aougzir (FSU), 6-3, 2-6, 7-5

3. Albert Larregola (VT) def. Chris Westerhof (FSU), 6-3, 7-5

4. Johnathas Sucupira (FSU) def. Angel Diankov (VT), 6-4, 7-6

5. Jeff Groslimond (FSU) def. Alexey Sergeev (VT), 6-4, 2-6, 6-4

6. Chip Webb (FSU) def. Adel Abbas (VT), 6-1, 6-2

Doubles

1. No. 44 Groslimond/Westerhof (FSU) def. Rod/Sergeev (VT), 8-4

2. No. 31 Cloer/Abougzir (FSU) def. Diankov/Wilkins (VT), 8-3

3. Sucupira/Chang (FSU) def. Puranen/Larregola (VT), 8-5

Finishing Orders:

Doubles: 2,3,1

Singles: 1,6,4*,3,5,2

* Clinching point