As the 16 best teams in the country gathered in Chicago this past weekend for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, the third-seeded Virginia men’s tennis team looked primed for a deep run and a potential championship. Boasting two top five players, first-ranked sophomore Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and No. 4 junior Ryan Shane, Virginia seemed to be a team playing some of its best tennis.
On Friday, matched up against 14th-seeded TCU, the Cavaliers looked the part. After winning a close-knit doubles point, Virginia’s top three singles players, senior Mitchell Frank, Shane and Kwiatkowski, took down the Horned Frogs’ top three to clinch a victory before the final three matches concluded.
Riding this momentum, the Cavaliers had a quick turnaround before their Saturday matchup against 11th-seeded Baylor, a team that had upset No. 6 Duke just one day earlier. In doubles, the Bears’ third position team of sophomore Vince Schneider and junior Felipe Rios pushed Baylor ahead with a 6-3 victory, followed soon after by an upset win at the second spot from junior Julian Lenz and senior Diego Galeano against Virginia’s predominantly strong, 41st-ranked team of Kwiatkowski and junior Mac Styslinger, 7-6(2).
In singles, the Cavaliers competed in their most heart-wrenching match yet. After Frank fell to Lenz at the first position to go down 2-0, the Cavaliers stormed back. Freshman Collin Altamirano knocked off Galeano at the four position, 6-1, 6-2, and sophomore J.C. Aragone followed that up with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 win against Schneider to tie up the match, 2-2. Shane then won at the second position 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, sending Virginia into the lead with just two matches awaiting completion.
Kwiatkowski shockingly lost in straight sets, 4-6, 6-7(10) to 27th-ranked Bears’ senior Tony Lupieri, which tied the match at 3-3 and put all eyes squarely on the number five matchup between Bears’ senior Mate Zsiga and Cavaliers’ freshman Alexander Ritschard. The two split the first two sets. However Zsiga surged ahead to clinch a Bears’ victory with a 6-3 third set win. The loss was the Cavaliers’ first of the season and knocked them out of the ITAs before the finals for just the second time since 2008.
In Sunday’s consolation round, Virginia rebounded, taking down 7th-ranked North Carolina convincingly, 4-0, in just one hour and 40 minutes. Although Baylor knocked the Cavaliers out of the National Indoors, Virginia will have a chance to rebound in two weeks when the team travels to Waco, Texas for a Mar. 1 rematch.
—compiled by Jacob Hochberger
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