This weekend, the Virginia men’s tennis team traveled to Winston-Salem, N.C., to compete in the Wake Forest Invitational — the team’s last non-ITA event of the season. 15 other schools participated, and Virginia sent three players to compete in doubles and singles from Friday to Sunday. Freshman Keegan Rice finished with a strong 3-1 singles record, while junior Ty Switzer and graduate student James Hopper had a hard fought doubles weekend.
Friday saw a few tough matches for the Cavaliers. Switzer and Hopper split their doubles matches, narrowly falling to a South Carolina pair 7-6 but bouncing back to defeat a team from College of Charleston 6-4.
The singles matches also got off to a rough start, with both Rice and Switzer dropping their first battle. Rice fell in a three-set match to Auburn junior William Nolan, while Switzer lost in straight sets to junior Esteve Agusti from James Madison.
Saturday, Switzer and Hopper lost to a UNC Greensboro team 6-3, but Rice had a dominant day in singles. He defeated Cleveland State junior Carl Gedlitschka in three sets and Auburn sophomore Nicholas Heng in another three-setter. Switzer, despite fighting hard, lost two close singles matches.
Sunday was another solid singles day for Virginia. Rice continued his dominant form, winning 6-1, 6-3 over Wake Forest Freshman Nikola Parichkov. Switzer came back from losing his first two singles matches, managing to close out the weekend on a high note, defeating freshman Zach Fleishman from James Madison 6-2, 6-4.
The Wake Forest Invitational proved to be a slightly challenging weekend for Virginia, with strong competition from a wide variety of schools. Doubles experienced some trouble, but only one team competed and the matches being restricted to one set makes winning difficult. Additionally, sophomore Dylan Dietrich, a strong singles and doubles player, missed the invitational for the Charlottesville ATP Challenger.
Next up, the competition will only intensify as a select few Cavaliers will compete for NCAA Championship spots at the ITA Sectionals, which is being held from Friday to Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Read More
Virginia adds six promising players in second week of the transfer period
By Peter Kriebel | 47 minutes agoVirginia has reinforced several positions throughout its roster, and more additions may be on the way.
Reflecting on a year of incredible achievement by women’s sports at Virginia
By Eleanor Buchanan , Caroline Wulff and Cierra Lyles | 16 hours agoThree Cavalier Daily staff writers share their thoughts on 2024 highlights.
Late run pushes men’s basketball past American
By Thomas Baxter | YesterdayVirginia squeezed out a win to end non-conference play.
