Virginia Men's Tennis Players Earn Preseason National Rankings
Story Links
Sept. 13, 2000
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Fourth-year University of Virginia men’s tennis players Brian Vahaly (Atlanta, Ga./The Lovett School) and Huntley Montgomery (Chapel Hill, N.C./Chapel Hill) have earned singles and doubles rankings in the 2000-01 preseason edition of the WingspanBank.com Collegiate Tennis Rankings for NCAA Division I as determined by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) National Ranking Committee.
Vahaly, who concluded the 1999-2000 season ranked fifth, is third in the 2000 preseason singles ratings with 784 points. Alex Kim of Stanford is first with 800 points and Shuon Madden of Texas A&M is second with 792 points. Montgomery is ranked 27th with 592 points after finishing the 1999-2000 season 64th in the nation. In the doubles poll, Vahaly and Montgomery are ranked 11th with 742 points after concluding last season ranked 31st. Southern California’s Ryan Moore and Nick Rainey are the top-ranked doubles tandem with 800 points.
Vahaly had a phenomenal 1999-2000 season as he earned ITA All-America honors for the second consecutive year. Vahaly, the 2000 ACC Player of the Year, was one of six men’s players named to the 2000 USA Tennis Collegiate Team as announced by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and the ITA. Vahaly advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship before being eliminated. His entry into the quarterfinals is the furthest a UVa tennis player has advanced in the NCAAs since the current 64-player format was adopted in 1977. Vahaly finished the season with a 35-5 singles record and established a UVa record for singles victories in a season.
In August, Vahaly won the singles and doubles titles at the ITA National Summer Championships and with the victories earned wild card bids into the August 22-26 U.S. Open qualifying tournaments. He lost in the first round in both competitions.
Montgomery posted a 21-13 singles record during the 1999-2000 season, including a 14-8 mark at #2 singles. Montgomery was also rated as the 12th best player in Region II in the final ITA ratings. His 2000 preseason ranking of 27th is the highest rating of his collegiate career.
In the doubles rankings, Vahaly and Montgomery are 11th in the preseason poll after finishing 31st in the WingspanBank.com ratings last year. The duo posted an 18-9 overall record and a 6-2 mark in the ACC as doubles partners and earned a bid to the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship. The UVa tandem lost in the first round of the NCAAs to second-seeded Geoff Abrams and Alex Kim of Stanford.
Vahaly and Montgomery kick off the 2000-01 Virginia tennis season by competing in the T. Rowe Price National Intercollegiate Clay Court Championships September 21-24 at The Suburban Club of Baltimore County in Pikesville, Md.