Virginia begins the 2017 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship by hosting first and second round matches on Friday and Saturday, May 12-13, at the Snyder Tennis Center.
The No. 2 seed in the field of 64 teams, Virginia (28-1, 11-1 ACC), will take on Monmouth (13-11, 7-0 MAAC) on Friday, May 12 at 1 p.m. No. 23 Columbia (17-4, 6-1 Ivy) and No. 41 Purdue (20-12, 7-4 Big Ten) will play Friday at 10 a.m. The winners will play on Saturday, May 13 at 1 p.m. with the winner of that match advancing to the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., where the final 16 teams will compete for the national championship May 18-23.
Admission is free for all UVA home tennis matches and free parking is available at the Culbreth Garage. Parking is also available at the Central Grounds Garage (hourly rates apply). Live scoring for all three matches will be available on VirginiaSports.com. There will not be live streaming video for the matches.
Virginia, the defending national champion, has won three of the last four NCAA titles (2013, 2015 and 2016) and has reached the semifinals in nine of the last 10 seasons. UVA has advanced to the Round of 16 each of the last 13 years and the quarterfinals 12-straight times. The Cavaliers, who have won the ITA National Team Indoor and ACC titles this season, are 55-10 in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Brian Boland.
Virginia had a conference-best five players earn All-ACC honors this year and have two Cavaliers slated to play in the NCAA Singles Championship.
Senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Charlotte, N.C.) became the ninth Virginia player to earn All-ACC honors in all four years of his collegiate career, being named to the All-ACC First Team. Kwiatkowski is currently ranked No. 14 in singles with a 24-6 record this season and will be competing in the NCAA Singles Championship for the third-straight year. The two-time All-American won a pivotal singles match against Wake Forest’s Borna Gojo in the finals of the ACC tournament to help the Cavaliers secure the conference title for the 12th time in program history.
Junior Collin Altamirano (Sacramento, Calif.) earned his second-straight invitation to the NCAA Singles Championship and his third career All-ACC honor. Altamirano, who has won his last eight singles matches, boasts a 15-5 record. Altamirano also has a seven-match win streak in doubles, amassing an 18-3 record while playing with senior J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.).
Senior Alexander Ritschard (Zurich, Switzerland) earned his first career All-ACC honor, being voted to the second team, after partnering with Kwiatkowski in doubles to go 20-1 this season. In singles, Ritschard started the season playing at No. 5 but has elevated to the top court, with a 21-5 overall record.
Freshman Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden), who began his collegiate career by winning his first 13 matches, including going 7-0 in conference play, was voted to the second team while junior Henrik Wiersholm (Kirkland, Wash.), who has a 21-1 record in singles this season, earned third-team honors.
Both Monmouth and Columbia played in the Charlottesville regional last season.
Monmouth is making its second-ever NCAA Championship appearance. The Hawks finished the 2017 campaign with a perfect 7-0 MAAC record, including five sweeps. In the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament, the Hawks downed two-seed Marist 4-1 to garner the automatic berth. Nicola Pipoli is the MAAC Player of the Year as well as being named the Most Outstanding Performer of the MAAC Championship. This will be the third meeting of the season between the Hawks and Cavaliers with Virginia winning 4-0 in each of the first two meetings.
Columbia, a 17-32 seed in the tournament, is coming off its fourth-consecutive Ivy League title. Four Lions picked up All-Ivy League accolades, led by a pair of unanimous first team singles selections in senior Shawn Hadavi and sophomore Victor Pham, who were also first team doubles honorees. Senior Richard Pham was a first team all-conference doubles pick, while first-year Jackie Tang earned second team doubles honors. Victor Pham earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Singles Tournament, as the highest ranked player from the Ivy League. Pham compiled a 22-11 record throughout the year, and was unbeaten in seven of his final eight matches. The sophomore is ranked No. 58 currently in the ITA.
Purdue, a 33-48 seed, is making its first trip to the NCAA Championship since 2014. The Boilermakers had a strong finish to the season, winning the final five matches of the regular season, finishing in a tie for fourth place in the Big Ten. The team is led by first team all-conference honoree Gergely Madarasz, who has split time between the top and second singles spots this year. The redshirt junior is the No. 97 player in the ITA, going 17-13 in singles play.
During the championships, all matches will be stopped after the doubles point is decided. All remaining individual matches will be stopped once a team winner (four points won) has been determined. The score will only reflect completed matches.
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