When talking about playing with junior Nick Cavaday in doubles, senior William Noblitt jokingly described his role in the duo.

“My back usually hurts from having to carry him in our matches,” Noblitt said.

In reality the duo boasts an 8-2 record this season and recently dropped from No. 11 to No. 21 in the nation as a pair, despite winning two matches this weekend. The pair’s only losses came at the hands of the No. 2 doubles team from Virginia and the No. 5 doubles pair from Duke.

Though Cavaday began the season with junior Ben Zink as his doubles partner, Noblitt stepped in when Zink was unable to travel to California because of a fear of flying. According to coach Jon Choboy, the switch was effective.

“These guys played together in the fall and did well, so it was the natural thing to put them together again,” Choboy said. “And they have a lot of respect for each other. They believe in each other a lot, and it’s a natural team to put together.”

Cavaday said the two “clicked” when paired in doubles and resultantly have experienced success.

“Doubles is about what works,” Cavaday said. “We kind of mixed it up until we went to California. And [Choboy] tried me and Noblitt playing together, and it worked really well. We won both of our matches and then came back, won the Blue-Gray [Invitational], won another three in a row, and we just kind of clicked.”

The two have a respect for each other’s talent, as well as experience playing together, two key ingredients for success in doubles, Cavaday said.

“Me and Nobs have a tremendous amount of respect for each other in terms of how we play,” Cavaday said. “I know when we’re at big points in the match I have faith in what he’s going to do, which helps. I like to think he is the same with me. We don’t want to let each other down. If I play a soft doubles match or a bad doubles match, I feel like I’ve let him down.”

Though the team must win two of the three doubles matches to earn the doubles point in a match, the No. 1 doubles tends to set the tone for how the rest of the match will play out, according to Noblitt.

“It’s a huge part of the match,” Noblitt said. “You play doubles first. So you’re going out, and you want to come out with a lot of energy, and if you can get that doubles point, you can build on it and carry that energy over into the singles.”

According to Choboy, opposing teams have a difficult time matching the pair’s energy and ability to return serves. This quality, Choboy said, will make the duo hard to beat in the postseason as well.

“They return serves very, very well, both of them,” Choboy said. “That’s really their major strength that teams have a tough time holding serves against them because they really return well. They just got really aggressive at the net over the last two years, where they help each other hold serves. They have a lot of respect for each other in that they don’t want to let each other down out there. They want to make sure they do everything they can not to let the other one down. That means a lot.”

Noblitt said the two try to set each other up to be successful in every way possible during a doubles match. They knocked off at least five ranked teams this season, according to Choboy.

“Our goal is to set one another up,” Noblitt said. “On the returns, we both focus on getting the ball down at our opponents’ feet to make them pop a ball up, and then hopefully one of us at the net can pick that next ball off. It’s really just playing together, trying to set the points and set up each other.”

It also helps that the teammates are good friends off the court, furthering the fact that they don’t want to let one another down, Cavaday said.

“We joke about how we carry each other and how our back hurts after a match,” Cavaday said. “Generally I’m the one in the training room, getting work on my back after most matches. But he’s done that for me at certain points in the season, and I’m grateful for that. If he ever struggles in a match, I’ll do my absolute best to play my best and pull him through.”

As the team faces off against No. 5 North Carolina this afternoon at home, the team will once again look to its No. 1 doubles pair to set the tone and lead the way “Doubles sets the tone for the rest of the match,” Cavaday said. “It shows how badly you want to win the rest of the match. We definitely are pretty proud of what we’ve done so far, and we have some goals we hope to achieve in our remaining matches and in the postseason.”

And though it was by chance that the pair teamed up, the two players’ success together has and will continue to keep them together in doubles play.

“We like to keep these two together,” Choboy said. “We’ll keep them together for the rest of the year. They’ll make the NCAA tournament, and they’ll do well.”