The UVA men’s tennis team begins the 2016 NCAA Championship by hosting first and second round matches on Saturday and Sunday, May 14-15, at the Snyder Tennis Center.
The No. 1 seed in the field of 64 teams, Virginia (24-4, 11-1 ACC), will take on Monmouth (12-9, 6-1 MAAC) on Saturday, May 14 at 12 p.m. No. 25 Columbia (17-5, 7-0 Ivy) and No. 37 Penn State (21-8, 6-5 Big Ten) will play at 9 a.m. Saturday. The winner of the two Saturday matches will play on Sunday, May 15 at 1 p.m. with the winner of that match advancing to the Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the final 16 teams will compete for the national championship May 20-24.
Live scoring for all three matches will be available on VirginiaSports.com. There will not be live streaming video for the matches.
The defending national champion Cavaliers have advanced to the Round of 16 each of the last 12 years and the quarterfinals 11-straight times. Virginia has won two titles in the last four years (2013 and 2015) and has reached the semifinals in eight of the last nine seasons. The Cavaliers are 49-10 in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Brian Boland.
This is the fifth time the Cavaliers enter the tournament as the top-ranked team in the nation, but the first time since 2011. Virginia was the No. 3 seed in the two years it won the title.
Virginia had a conference-best six players earn All-ACC honors this year and have five Cavaliers slated to play in the NCAA Individual Championships. Senior Ryan Shane (Falls Church, Va.), an All-ACC First Team member, was named the ITA Atlantic Region Senior Player of the Year as well as the ITA Atlantic Region Arthur Ashe Award winner. Shane will be the No. 8 seed in the NCAA singles championship and the No. 4 seed in doubles. Shane is 17-11 in singles this season, including a 14-10 mark at No. 1, and 16-4 in doubles. Shane is 6-0 in singles in NCAA dual matches.
Junior Luca Corinteli (Alexandria, Va.), Shane’s doubles partner, earned his first career All-ACC honor, being voted to the third team. Corinteli went 9-3 in singles in spring dual matches in addition to his 14-4 record at No. 1 doubles.
Junior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Charlotte, N.C.) comes into the NCAA Tournament with 95 career singles victories. Kwiatkowski, like Shane, will be playing in both the NCAA singles and doubles tournaments in Tulsa, garnering a 9-16 seed in singles. Kwiatkowski, an All-ACC Second Team member, is 31-7 in singles this season, including a 12-1 mark at No. 3. Kwiatkowski is 16-3 at No. 2 doubles with partner senior Mac Styslinger (Birmingham, Ala.). Kwiatkowski is 6-1 in his career in singles in NCAA dual matches and 5-1 in doubles. Styslinger is 11-2 in doubles in NCAA dual matches.
Sophomore Collin Altamirano (Sacramento, Calif.) was named the ITA Atlantic Region Player to Watch after being named to the All-ACC Second Team with a 23-4 singles record this spring, including a 13-2 mark at No. 2. Altamirano was 4-0 last season in singles matches in the NCAA tournament and 5-1 in doubles.
Sophomore Henrik Wiersholm (Kirkland, Wash.), an All-ACC Third Team honoree, is 22-2 in singles this spring. Junior J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.), who was also named to the All-ACC Third Team, is 22-3 in singles this spring. Aragone is 5-1 in his career in singles matches in the NCAA tournament and 5-1 in doubles.
Monmouth dramatically punched its ticket to the first NCAA Tournament in program history, coming back from down 3-0 to Quinnipiac in the MAAC Championship Match. Alberto Giuffrida, Przemyslaw Filipek, Vidit Vaghela and Christian Vieira each earned singles victories to propel the Hawks into the tournament. This is the first-ever meeting between Virginia and the Hawks.
Penn State is making its seventh appearance in the NCAA Championship. The Nittany Lions finished sixth in the Big Ten and advanced to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. Leo Stakhovsky, Penn State’s No. 1 singles player, has a 16-11 mark this spring. Tomas Hanzlik is 17-6 this spring including a 10-2 record at No. 4. Assistant Coach Paul Tobin was named the ITA Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year. Freshman Constant De La Bassetiere was named the ITA Atlantic Region Rookie of the Year. Virginia is 22-2 all-time against Penn State.
Columbia was in Charlottesville in February competing at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The Lions earned the Ivy League’s automatic berth into the tournament after finishing with a 7-0 league record. Junior Shawn Hadavi is their only ranked single player at No. 81. Hadavi was named Ivy League Player of the Year. The team has one ranked doubles duo in Mike Vermeer and Michal Rolski at No. 53.
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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