The Virginia men’s tennis program , played impressively over the weekend, upsetting No. 23 NC State and putting up an impressive showing against No. 1 Wake Forest.
On Friday, the Cavaliers (12-10, 5-6 ACC) kicked off the weekend with an important win over the Wolfpack (15-6, 5-5 ACC). Virginia was able to win the match in large part due to the performances of its two ranked players, sophomore Carl Söderlund (No. 31) and junior Aswin Lizen (No. 28). The Cavaliers started the match with a 2-1 victory for the doubles point, with the increasingly impressive doubles team of Lizen and freshman Gianni Ross (No. 27) scoring yet another victory. Freshmen Matthew Lord and Kyrylo Tsygura also won impressively, clinching the match and adding more wins to a pair of already impressive freshman resumes.
The Cavaliers fared somewhat worse on Sunday, losing 6-1 to the Demon
Deacons (20-2, 9-1 ACC). Wake Forest is undisputedly the best team in the country,
boasting wins over every ACC team played except No. 13 Florida State, against whom they lost 3-4 on the road. While the top of the Demon Deacon lineup was able to dispatch their Cavalier opponents, Tsygura was able to defeat experienced junior Julian Zlobinsky after winning a tiebreaker to take the first set. This prevented Virginia from being shut out by Wake Forest and showcases just how deep the freshman class for the Cavaliers is this year.