The Virginia men's tennis team rebounded from its Feb. 14 loss to University of Minnesota (7-1) to defeat Georgetown University (5-8) and Liberty University (0-4) in the team's dual meet this past Saturday, increasing Virginia's overall record to 8-1.
Virginia swept both Georgetown and Liberty with overall team scores of 7-0 in both matches.
While unranked and overmatched, both Georgetown and Liberty proved to be important matches for Virginia because gaining experience is crucial for Virginia at this stage of the season.
"It's a great opportunity to get matches in and get some guys in to play who haven't played a lot," Virginia assistant coach Tony Bresky said.
In both the Georgetown and Liberty matches, regular starters Darrin Cohen and Rylan Rizza did not play, allowing for other members to gain more experience in singles competition.
Even without these two starters the Cavaliers did not seem to miss a beat.
In the Georgetown match, Virginia started strong and continued its dominance over the Hoyas, a team that has lost to the Cavaliers 12 out of their last 14 meetings. Virginia swept the three doubles matches to start play and never looked back.
The doubles sweep earned them one point overall to give them a 1-0 lead before the singles matches began.
The singles matches continued the domination of in the doubles matches. Singles stalwarts Doug Stewart, who is ranked No. 107 in the country, and Stephen Rozek won their respective matches with relative ease. Stewart defeated the number one player from Georgetown 6-2, 6-2 and Rozek defeated his opponent by a score of 6-0, 6-1.
Even with a few lineup changes, the high level of tennis play in the Georgetown match carried over against Liberty. Three new Liberty doubles pairs did little to sway the outcome of any match, as once again the Cavaliers swept all three matches and earned an overall point in the match.
The singles lineup stayed relatively the same, with five of the six starters who earlier had faced the Hoyas returning to the court to face Liberty. This stability brought exactly the same result as the previous match, with all five players winning in straight sets and second year Chris Goyner defeating his opponent in straight sets.
One key to Virginia's success this year has been the addition of Stewart as a legitimate number one starter from which the team can build upon down the rest of the ladder.
"It's been fun playing number one on the team," Stewart said. "It is always good playing high in the lineup to get good competition."
While Stewart gives the team a solid presence on the ladder, the one question mark remaining with the Cavaliers is how the first years, who lack experience playing at the college level, will perform against the more difficult teams in the future.
More than half of the team is comprised of freshmen, and while they bring talent and skill to the program, they also bring inexperience.
With this year's conference lineup boasting strong squads coming out of Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest --all of which are ranked in the top 25 --Virginia has some important matches in the upcoming months. The Cavaliers are preparing for the difficult ACC competition by heading on a West Coast swing over Spring Break to play number one ranked UCLA, along with UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and the University of the Pacific.
"We're young and playing more matches increases our confidence and experience," Virginia coach Brian Boland said. "California will help us get ready for the outdoor season. Experiences with adversity will help with team confidence."
While improvement as tennis players takes precedent over other goals, the talent level of this year's team is higher than it has been in a long time. The group of freshmen complements the sophomores to form a dark horse team that could give opposing ACC powerhouses trouble as the season continues. The Cavaliers are confident in their abilities and show it through the goals they have set for their team this year.
"I'm optimistic about this season,"sophomore Stephen Nolan said."Our goal is to win ACC's and it is definitely possible," sophomore Stephen Nolan said. We have to have guys step up and play hard, but it is definitely a strong conference this year and we can do well in it."
The Cavaliers have one more home match Feb. 28 against Old Dominion at the Boars Head Inn before heading out to the West Coast.
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