No. 2 Virginia Plays at No. 11 Illinois Saturday
Story Links
| No. 2 Virginia Cavaliers (8-1) at No. 11 Illinois Fighting Illini (6-4) | |
| Date & Time | Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016, 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. local time) |
| Location | Urbana, Ill. | Atkins Tennis Center |
| Coverage | Live Scoring and Video |
| Additional Information | Twitter | Coach Boland Twitter | Instagram | Facebook |
Feb. 26, 2016 – The No. 2 Virginia men’s tennis team (8-1) plays its first road match of the season, taking on No. 11 Illinois (6-4) on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. E.T. (6 p.m. local time) at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Ill.
Live stats and streaming video will be available on the Fighting Illini website with those links posted on VirginiaSports.com.
This is the first match for the Cavaliers since finishing as the runners-up at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 15. The Illini also competed at ITA Indoors, going 1-2 with a 4-3 win over South Florida in between a 4-0 loss to TCU and a 4-2 setback against Oklahoma. The Illini hosted Texas A&M last weekend, falling 4-2.
Both Virginia and Illinois have a pair of players ranked in the top-15 in the latest ITA singles rankings. Junior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Charlotte, N.C.) is ranked third and senior Ryan Shane (Falls Church, Va.) is No. 14. The Illini’s Aleks Vukic is ninth and Jared Hiltzik is No. 11.
Sophomore Collin Altamirano (Sacramento, Calif.) has started the dual season with an 8-0 record at singles. The unanimous selection for the ITA Indoors All-Tournament team at No. 3 singles is ranked for the first time this season at No. 29. Junior J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.), who is 7-0 at singles and was also named to the ITA Indoors All-Tournament Team at No. 5 singles, returned to the rankings this week at No. 111.
The Cavaliers have two doubles teams ranked in the top-10 with Kwiatkowski and senior Mac Styslinger (Birmingham, Ala.) ranked sixth and Shane and junior Luca Corinteli (Alexandria, Va.) ranked seventh. Kwiatkowski and Styslinger are 5-0 at doubles in dual matches this season and 12-3 overall.
Virginia leads the all-time series against Illinois 10-2. Virginia has won the last eight meetings, including a 4-0 victory in the 2011 NCAA Tournament and a 7-0 victory in 2013 in Urbana. The Illini’s last win in the series was a 5-2 victory in Urbana in 2006.
Virginia begins conference action next week, playing at Louisville on Friday, March 4 at 5 p.m. before heading to Blacksburg, Va., to face No. 46 Virginia Tech on Sunday, March 6 at 6 p.m.