Men's tennis comes up short in upset of No. 6 Wake Forest

Virginia Tech fell to No. 6-ranked Wake Forest at home on Friday afternoon, 4-3.

On a day when the team celebrated a Doughnut Day, men’s tennis had a tall task in front of it. The Demon Deacons entered the match as the second seed in the ACC and winners of nine straight and 14 of their last 15 contests.

2Virginia Tech, sixth in standings, needed a strong outing to win.

The Hokies started down 1-0 early after the Deacons won the first two, and majority, of the three doubles matches. The Hokies would win the last of doubles play, as Andreas Bjerrehus and Joao Monteiro won 5-3, but that win was too late following the other finished matches.

Wake Forest added another point, winning the first finished singles match, but senior Amerigo Contini got Virginia Tech on the board, winning his match 6-4, 6-1. With the team score at 2-1, the Hokies snapped back into it and looked to finish strong.

Yet the Deacons quickly added a point back, making it 3-1, trying to end the game early. Senior Mitch Harper would not let that happen as he got the game back going for the Hokies, making the score 3-2, winning his match 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

The two games remaining saw the Hokies in a battle fighting to win.

The Hokies split the first two sets on court one, and being slightly ahead of the other game, if the Hokies lost this matchup they would lose the game. The final set would determine if the remaining matchup on court four would be for the win.

Wake’s early lead proved to be too much to overcome as the Deacons took that final set 6-3 and took the game, winning 4-2.

Senior Edoardo Tessaro would go on to win his match 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 on court four, but the game had been decided. Tessaro’s win made the final team score 4-3, but just like in the last doubles match, the Hokies won too late. The Hokies' rally had come up short as falling behind early proved fatal.

Virginia Tech, now 13-6 and 5-4 in conference play following its 6-1 win over Notre Dame on Sunday, will continue play at Clemson on Friday, April 8 for a 2 p.m. match.