University of Virginia tennis duo wins doubles national title

The Virginia duo of Jarmere Jenkins (College Park, Ga.) and Mac Styslinger (Birmingham, Ala.) won the fifth NCAA Individual title in school history, capturing the NCAA Doubles Championship over Chris Camillone and David Holiner of Texas 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 Monday at the Atkins Tennis Center. Earlier in the day, Jenkins’ bid for the NCAA Tennis Triple Crown came up short as he suffered a 7-6(8), 6-4 loss to Blaz Rola of Ohio State in the NCAA Singles Final.

Jenkins and Styslinger become the third NCAA Doubles Champions in Virginia history. Michael Shabaz and Dominic Inglot won the title in 2009 and Shabaz defended his title the following year, teaming with Drew Courtney.

In this year’s final, the Texas duo took an early 4-1 lead as the match started outdoors. The rain then came and the rest of the match was played indoors. Each team held serve in the next four games as the Longhorn pair took the first set.

The Cavalier pair took a lead in the second set as they broke Holiner’s serve to go up 3-1. They later broke Holiner’s serve again four games later to close out the 6-2 set and force a third set.

In the final set, the Texas team took a 3-2 lead by breaking Styslinger’s serve. The Cavalier pair answered by breaking Camillone in the next game to get back on serve at 3-3. Jenkins and Styslinger had two break points on Holiner’s serve two games later, but couldn’t take advantage and the final set was tied at 4-4. After Styslinger held at love for a 5-4 lead, the Cavalier pair broke Camillone in the next game to clinch the 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Rola won the national championship in singles with a 7-6(8), 6-4 win over Jenkins. The first set remained on serve throughout, with Jenkins serving four break points during his first three service games and Rola saving a pair of break points at 5-5. Rola took a 6-2 lead in the tiebreaker before Jenkins saved fourth straight set points to draw even, 6-6. Jenkins had one set point of his own, at 8-7, but Rola won the next three points to win the breaker 10-8 and take the first set.

Both players were strong on their serve again in the second set. Only one game went to deuce, a four-deuce game that Jenkins served at 3-3. Rola took advantage of the only break point by either player in the second set to take a 4-3 lead and served out the 7-6(8), 6-4 victory.