Thursday evening, William and Mary kicked off its 2019 season by taking on 17th-ranked Virginia in Charlottesville. The Tribe (0-1) ultimately couldn’t handle the Cavaliers (1-0), losing by a score of 6-1.
The College got off to a rough start, losing the doubles point. At the No. 1 spot, junior Brendan Volk and freshman Orn Vassar lost by a score of 6-3 to UVA’s Aswin Lizen and Gianni Ross. Senior Tristan Bautil and sophomore Finbar Talcott were also defeated 6-3 in the second spot by Carl Soderlund and William Woodall. At the No. 3 spot, sophomore Chen Ruo and freshman Daniel Pellerito lost 6-2 to Brendon Nakashima and Henrik Wiersholm.
The night didn’t get much better for the Tribe. In singles play, most of the scores were similarly lopsided in Virginia’s direction. Volk lost 6-1, 6-1 to Soderlund at the No. 1 spot, while Talcot was defeated 6-0, 6-3 at the No. 2 spot by Nakashima. The College got its only point at the No. 3 spot, where sophomore Sebastian Quiros defeated Ross in three sets. Quiros won the first set by a score of 6-3 but dropped the second 6-0. He rallied to win the third 6-2 to take the match.
The last three matches for the College were much of the same. Ruo lost at the No. 4 6-4, 6-1 to Wiersholm, and freshman Jack Kelly lost 7-6, 6-2 to Ryan Goetz at the No. 6 spot. At the No. 5 spot Pellerito made the match a little more exciting. After losing the first set 6-4 against Lizen, Pellerito won the second 6-4, but lost the match after losing the third set 6-2.
The Tribe’s next match will be Saturday, Jan. 19, where it will face Middle Tennessee as part of the Virginia Tech Invitational.
