The No. 4 Virginia men’s tennis team (11-2, 2-0 ACC) earned a 6-1 victory over No. 26 Tulsa (7-6, 0-0 AAC) on Thursday (March 10) in the first of two matches it plays this week at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. the host site for the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships (May 19-30).
“I was pleased with our performance tonight against an extremely-competitive Tulsa team,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. “I was particularly pleased with the performances of Mac Styslinger and Henrik Wiersholm. They really stepped uptonight in singles which created tremendous momentum. This team keeps improving with each match. Now we will focus on getting ready to play Oklahoma on Saturday.”
The Hurricane had an early advantage after logging a win at No. 2 doubles but senior Ryan Shane (Falls Church, Va.) and junior Luca Corinteli (Alexandria. Va.) evened things out with a 6-4 win at No. 1. The point was decided on No. 3 with junior J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and sophomore Collin Altamirano (Sacramento, Calif.) winning 7-5 to put the Cavaliers ahead 1-0 heading into singles.
Sophomore Henrik Wiersholm (Kirkland, Wash.) won 6-1, 6-2 over Dominic Bechard at No. 6 followed by a 6-1, 6-4 victory by senior Mac Styslinger (Birmingham, Ala.) over Majed Kilani at No. 5. Shane secured the victory with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Or Ram-Hamel at No. 1. Junior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Charlotte, N.C.) won 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 at No. 3 and Altamirano downed Carlos Bautista 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2. Aragone suffered UVA’s lone singles loss, falling 6-2, 6-4 to Juan Matias Gonzalez at No. 4.
The Cavaliers will close out the weekend by taking on No. 13 Oklahoma on Saturday in Tulsa. The match time has been moved back to 4 p.m. ET from its originally-scheduled 1 p.m. start. The contest will be a rematch of last year’s NCAA Championship as Virginia and Oklahoma faced one another in the 2015 NCAA Final last season in Waco, Texas with Virginia winning 4-1.
The Cavaliers return home to host No. 27 N.C. State on Friday, March 18 at 3 p.m. followed by a 1 p.m. match against No. 38 Notre Dame on Sunday, March 20. Both matches are scheduled to be played outdoors at the Snyder Tennis Center.
No. 4 Virginia 6, No. 26 Tulsa 1
Singles
- #14 Ryan Shane (UVA) def. #39 Or Ram-Harel (Tulsa) 6-3, 6-3
- #47 Collin Altamirano (UVA) def. Carlos Bautista (Tulsa) 6-4, 6-4
- #3 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVA) def. Dylan McCloskey (Tulsa) 6-4, 1-6, 7-5
- Juan Matias Gonzalez (Tulsa) def. #116 J.C. Aragone (UVA) 6-2, 6-4
- Mac Styslinger (UVA) def. Majed Kilani (Tulsa) 6-1, 6-4
- Henrik Wiersholm (UVA) def. Dominic Bechard (Tulsa) 6-1, 6-2
Order of finish: 6,5,1,4,3,2
Doubles
- #6 Shane/Corinteli (UVA) def. Kirby/McCloskey (Tulsa) 6-4
- Ram-Harel/Gonzalez (Tulsa) def. No. 7 Kwiatkowski/Styslinger (UVA) 6-4
- Aragone/Altamirano (UVA) def. Bechard/Bautista (Tulsa) 7-5
Order of finish: 2,1,3
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