BLACKSBURG – On a cloudy afternoon at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center, Virginia Tech fell short against No. 8 Wake Forest, 4-1. The Hokies' performance was headlined by Alvaro Saez-Royuela Ariza and Scott Sculley picking up a doubles win over No. 49 Jurabek Karimov and Siddhant Banthia.
Matt Harper and Carlo Donato started the doubles off strong for Tech with a 6-4 win on Court 3 before Ariza and Sculley downed their opponents for a ranked win on Court 2. Jordan Chrysostom and Ryan Fishback's match on Court 1 went unfinished when the Hokies clinched the point.
Wake Forest rebounded quickly in singles with a pair of two-set wins on Court 2 and Court 5. On Court 4, Michael Shepheard battled in the first set but dropped a tiebreaker. In the second set it was more of the same, as he went toe-to-toe with his opponent, but eventually fell, 7-6, 6-4.
Ariza was the Hokies' last hope on Court 3 and that's exactly what he provided. Similar to Shepheard, Ariza was in a tight matchup through both sets. In his second set, he was able to draw up a tiebreaker, but dropped the match in the long run – 6-4, 7-6.
Fishback and Alberto Orso had uncharacteristically poor first sets but set Virginia Tech up to get points on the board when they rallied in the second set. Both players had their matches called due to Wake Forest clinching the match, 4-1.
Virginia Tech returns to action at home on Sunday at noon against No. 34 NC State.Gallery: (3-25-2022) MTEN: Wake Forest Match
