Michael Shabaz Receives Third Straight ACC Tennis Player of the Week Award

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CHARLOTTESVILLE – Virginia senior tennis player Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) was named ACC Men’s Tennis Player of the Week, conference officials announced Tuesday. Shabaz, who receives the award for the third consecutive week and the fifth time this season, helped the top-ranked Cavaliers post road wins at No. 29 Miami and No. 46 Florida State last week.

Shabaz becomes the first Virginia player to receive the award three consecutive weeks. His five awards are the most for a Cavalier in a season, breaking the previous high of four awards set by Somdev Devvarman in 2008.

Shabaz went 2-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles last week. In singles, he defeated Waylon Chin of Miami 6-1, 6-3 and No. 26 Vahid Mirzadeh of Florida State 6-4, 6-1. In doubles, he teamed with Drew Courtney (Clifton, Va.) for a pair of wins, including a 9-8 win over the 15th-ranked Seminole duo of Mirzadeh and Connor Smith.

Shabaz was also honored on Jan. 25, Feb. 8, March 15 and March 22 this season, has been named ACC Player of the Week seven times in his career. His seven career awards his tied with Duke’s Henrique Cunha for the second-most in ACC history, two behind Devvarman’s nine career awards.

The top-ranked Cavaliers, who haven’t played at home since Feb. 11, will host a pair of ACC rivals next weekend. They play No. 10 Duke on Friday at 3 p.m. and No. 17 North Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m.