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Jan. 31, 2005
CHARLOTTESVILLE – Virginia third-year tennis player Doug Stewart (Malibu, Calif.) was named ACC Tennis Player of the Week conference officials announced on Monday. Stewart helped lead the No. 10 Cavaliers to a pair of 7-0 wins over ranked foes to open the season last week.
In Virginia’s season opening win over No. 59 Old Dominion, Stewart won a battle of top 20 singles players. No. 19 ranked Stewart fell behind to No. 7 Izak van der Merwe, losing the first set and falling behind by a break in the second. However, Stewart rallied to win the second set in a tiebreaker to force a third-set super-breaker. In the super-breaker, van der Merwe, took a 9-6 lead, but Stewart fought off those three match points against and won the final five points to win the match 2-6, 7-6, 11-9.
In Saturday’s win over No. 44 Minnesota, Stewart downed No. 105 Avery Ticer in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3. In both matches during the week, Stewart notched doubles wins teaming with Eric Riley (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.).
The honor is the second of Stewart’s career, as he also was honored once during his freshman year.
Virginia (2-0) continues its season-opening five-match homestand this week when it hosts No. 25 Tennessee on February 5 at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. Match time is 2:00 p.m.