The Virginia men’s tennis team will spend significant time on the road in the next six weeks. One of the most important aspects of a long road trip is starting off strong and gaining momentum, as these are some of the most taxing times for a team. At Thalhimer Tennis Center in Richmond Saturday, Virginia did just that.
Taking on a deceivingly strong, 59th-ranked VCU Rams team, the No. 3 Cavaliers (5-0) initially struggled to take control. After a commanding singles win by senior All-American Mitchell Frank at the No. 2 position, Rams sophomore Catalin Fifea evened up the match with a tight 7-6(5), 6-4 win at No. 4 against sophomore J.C. Aragone.
From then on, however, it was all Cavaliers. In the third and fourth singles matches, sophomore Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and junior Ryan Shane both won their matches, putting Virginia up 3-1.
Although these two matches appeared to be locks going in, with Kwiatkoski and Shane ranked fourth and sixth respectively, two of VCU’s internationals, sophomore Wilder Pimentel and junior Michal Voscek gave the Cavaliers a run for their money, leaving the door open for a comeback from the home side in the second round of singles matches.
To the Rams’ dismay, the rest of the match displayed Virginia’s profound depth and ability as numbers five through nine in the Cavalier lineup all convincingly won in straight sets to push the Virginia advantage to 8-1 before the doubles teams took to the courts.
In doubles, the 14th-ranked Shane and sophomore Luca Corinteli squad opened the scoring with a dominant 6-1 win at the No. 2 position, followed by a tiebreaker victory from the 37th-ranked duo of Kwiatkowski and junior Mac Styslinger at No. 1. To cap off an incredibly successful day, the No. 3 and No. 4 doubles teams both cruised, 6-3.
Although this should be a valuable victory for the third-ranked Cavaliers to build on, the true test comes next week, when they travel to Chicago for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships — a championship the team has brought back to Charlottesville five of the past seven years.
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