BLACKSBURG, VA. — The No. 16 Irish and Hokies of Virginia Tech faced off Sunday afternoon in a conference matchup. Notre Dame dropped a close one to Atlantic Coast Conference foe, Virginia Tech, by a final score of 5-2.
Doubles
The Hokies stole the doubles point to start the match as all three courts were tied late at five-all. The Irish tandem of Matt Gamble and Axel Nefve were in a tie break on the first court, knotted at eight games a piece in the breaker when their match was abandoned as courts two and three fell in tight, 7-5 matches.
Singles
Axel Nefve and Nate Griffin both claimed first set victories in the singles portion of the afternoon, as Nefve finished first through one set, claiming a 6-1 win over No. 56 Jason Kros on court one. Griffin found himself a 6-2 victory in No. 5 singles through the first set.
After falling down 3-1 in the second, Nefve came back to win four unanswered games in route to a 7-6(8) win and the first Irish point of the afternoon.
Three courts went to a decisive third set as both Guillermo Cabrera and Grayson Broadus lost their first set, before storming back to claim the next.
Broadus and his opponent split a pair of 6-3 wins while Cabrera lost a close tiebreak on the third court before taking the second set by a score of 6-1.
Nate Griffin also entered the third set as his opponent, Hokies’ Brandon Perez took the second set, 6-4.
Grayson Broadus added to the team score with his 6-1 third set victory to finish the day, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Up Next
The Irish are back on the road one last time, heading to North Carolina next week for three dual matches beginning Thursday at North Carolina State. They then travel across town to Duke on Friday before concluding their regular season road schedule at North Carolina on Sunday.
–ND–