Great teams show great character in times of crisis. Although the Virginia men's tennis team has not yet attained greatness, it has definitely proved its resiliency.
Virginia bounced back from a disappointing weekend to register a 5-2 victory over No. 60 Old Dominion yesterday at the Snyder Tennis Center. Old Dominion's chances of recording an upset were shot to shreds early on as the Cavaliers swept all the doubles matches to easily take the point.
The duo of Rylan Rizza and Nick Meythaler, ranked 31st in the nation, got the ball rolling by posting an 8-4 victory over the Monarchs' pair of Nathaniel Grover and Izak van der Merwe. Old Dominion's Calin Milos and Zoltan Csanadi lost to Virginia's Darrin Cohen and Doug Stewart. Marko Miklo and Stephen Rozek completed the white-wash with an 8-1 victory over Nicklas Oskarrson and Adriano Mello. Virginia's head coach Brian Boland was proud of his team's effort in doubles play.
"We came out pretty focused in doubles," Boland said. "I thought we played better doubles today than we have played in a while."
Virginia carried its focus into the singles matches with freshman Miklo setting the pace. Miklo, playing at No. 2 for Virginia, was a straight sets winner over Zoltan Csanadi, 6-2, 6-0. The win improved his win streak to seven games, with two of the wins coming at the No. 2 spot.
"I dropped a lot of break points in the first set," Miklo said. "It was all a matter of how many I could take."
Sophomore Doug Stewart, playing at No. 1, recorded the day's first upset. Stewart won 6-3, 6-3over 12th rankedvan Der Merwe.
"One of the advantages of playing a person so highly ranked is that you know you have to play your best," Stewart said. "I knew I was going to have to play a good match, and I did."
Sophomore Nick Meythaler, playing at the No. 5 slot, extended Virginia's lead with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Nicklas Oskarrson. Cohen, playing at the No. 6 spot, fought back from an early deficit to take his match 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, against Nate Grover.
Virginia's No. 4 seed, Stephen Rozek, lost in straight sets to Henrique Cancado, 3-6, 5-7. No. 3 seed Rylan Rizza, playing Calin Milos, lost the first set in a close tie breaker, 6-7, before rallying back to win the second set, 6-1. He eventually dropped the final set, 6-1.
Boland was pleased with his team's efforts in general but still thinks his squad has the potential to play better tennis.
The win moves Virginia to 18-3 overall and 6-1 in the ACC, the best ACC start for the Cavaliers since 1961. The Cavaliers are now tied for first place in the conference with North Carolina. Virginia wraps up its regular season with a match against No. 5 ranked Duke Sunday. The outcome of the game may determine which team gets to take home the ACC regular season trophy.
Read More
Live tracker: the men’s basketball offseason
By Michael Liebermann , Emory Huffman and Xander Tilock | 6 hours agoA frenetic offseason likely awaits.
Virginia is getting ‘better and better,’ and it was all on display against Syracuse
By Michael Liebermann | 10 hours agoVirginia did almost everything right in its best performance of the season.
For Virginia softball, challenging No. 8 Florida State series comes at critical time
By Emory Huffman | 16 hours agoFlorida State is both a major challenge and an opportunity.
