No. 4 Cavaliers Down Miami 5-2 in Regular Season Finale

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Box Score April 19, 2015

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The No. 4 Virginia men’s tennis team completed its ninth consecutive undefeated ACC regular season, its 10th in the past 11 years, with a 5-2 victory at Miami Sunday at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. The Cavaliers (20-3, 12-0 ACC) reached the 20-win mark for the 13th consecutive season, while the Hurricanes (7-16, 1-11 ACC) suffered their sixth consecutive loss.

The win extended Virginia’s win streak against conference opponents (regular season and tournaments) to 136 consecutive matches, the longest streak in ACC history in any sport.

“This match was exactly what we needed to end the regular season,” said head coach Brian Boland. “The conditions were brutally tough and I thought our guys handled it well. I am really proud of our team. We have been pushing the guys extremely hard with fitness these past couple of weeks and we need to taper down to prepare for the ACC tournament starting Friday. We really look forward to it.”

Virginia opened the match by taking the doubles point for the 14th consecutive match. At No. 1 Ryan Shane (Falls Church, Va.) and Luca Corinteli (Alexandria, Va.) ran their win streak to 11 matches with an 8-4 victory over Henrique Tsukamoto and Piotr Lomacki. The opening point was secured at No. 3 where Mitchell Frank (Annandale, Va.) and Collin Altamirano (Sacramento, Calif.) topped Nile Clark and Andrew Harrington 8-6.

The Cavaliers doubled their lead early in singles as J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.) posted a 6-1, 6-1 win over Niclas Genovese at the No. 6 position. Kwiatkowski followed with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4 over Tsukamoto. Miami cut the lead to 3-1 as Wilfredo Gonzalez topped Altamirano 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles. Frank clinched the victory as he completed a 6-4, 6-2 win over Lomacki at the top spot.

The final two matches went to a decisive third set. The Hurricanes’ Christian Langmo rallied from dropping the first set to down Shane 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 singles. In the final match on the courts, Alexander Ritschard (Zurich, Switzerland) came-from-behind for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 5 over Bernard Tefel.

The Cavaliers will be the No. 1 seed at next week’s ACC Tournament in Cary, N.C. Virginia will have a first round bye and open play with a quarterfinal match on Friday against either eighth-seeded Florida State or ninth-seeded NC State. Match time at the Cary Tennis Center will be 9 a.m.

#4 VIRGINIA 5, MIAMI 2

Doubles:
1. #5 Corinteli/Shane (UVa) def. Tsukamoto/Lomacki (UM) 8-4
2. #62 Styslinger/Kwiatkowski (UVa) vs. Gonzalez/Tefel (UM) 7-5 DNF
3. Altamirano/Frank (UVa) def. Clark/Harrington (UM) 8-6
Order of Finish: 1,3

Singles:
1. #20 Mitchell Frank (UVa) def, #73 Piotr Lomacki (UM) 6-4, 6-2
2. Christian Langmo (UM) def. #4 Ryan Shane (UVa) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
3. Wilfredo Gonzalez (UM) def. #77 Collin Altamirano (UVa) 6-2, 6-2
4. #16 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVa) def. Henrique Tsukamoto (UM) 6-2, 6-2
5. Alexander Ritschard (UVa) def. Bernard Tefel (UM) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
6. J.C. Aragone (UVa) def. Niclas Genovese (UM) 6-1, 6-1
Order of Finish: 6,4,3,1,2,5