The No. 11 TCU men’s tennis team, featuring new pairings in the doubles matches, fell on the road Thursday against Virginia. 

For the first time this season, the duo of Tadeas Paroulek and Sander Jong played at the No. 1 doubles position and lost to the No. 35 ranked pairing from Virginia of Matthew Lord and Carl Sonderlund, 4-6. 

At No. 3 doubles, another new pairing of Alastair Gray and Tomas Jirousek held the serve with their opponents for the first 11 games but ended up losing 5-7, giving UVA the doubles point. 

The No. 2 doubles match with the pair of Luc Fomba and Bertus Kruger was unfinished after the completion of the first two doubles matches. 

“They played better than we did,” head coach David Roditi said. “We knew this would be a tough road stretch and we would have to play well to beat these good programs on the road and we simply didn’t play well enough to win.”

The loss comes after a road loss to No. 20 Michigan last Saturday. 

Fomba was the only Horned Frog to win his singles match at the No. 3 singles position. He came ahead early on in the match and defeated his opponent 7-5, 6-2. 

Fomba is now 3-0 this spring. 

Two Horned Frogs fell in straight sets — Paroulek and Kruger.

No. 122 Paroulek fell to No. 81 Ryan Goetz at the No. 2 position 2-6, 2-6. At the No. 4 position, Kruger also lost in straight sets 5-7, 6-3. 

Jong lost at the No. 5 position, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) in a tie break to his opponent. 

On court one, Gray won his first set 6-4. He got ahead early on but later fell in the second set 4-6. The match was suspended before the third set began because the other singles match ended. 

Jirousek lost the first set of his singles match 3-6 and won the second 6-2, forcing a third set. He was ahead 1-0 in the third when play was suspended. 

“Their coaches prepared them better and now we get to regroup and see if we can compete and execute better at home against UNC Sunday,” Roditi said. 

The Horned Frogs return home at 1 p.m. Sunday to take on the No. 1 ranked North Carolina. The match will be played indoors at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.