No. 1 Virginia Opens 2017 Season on a Three-Match Road Trip
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| No. 1 Virginia at Vanderbilt (6-2, 0-0 SEC), No. 15 Kentucky (5-1, 0-0 SEC) & Louisville (2-1, 0-0 ACC) | |
| Date & Time | Feb. 3, 6:00 p.m. ET; Feb. 4, 5:00 p.m.; Feb. 5, 3:30 p.m. ET |
| Location | Vanderbilt: Currey Tennis Center Kentucky: Boone Tennis Center Lousville: Bass-Rudd Tennis Center |
| Coverage | | Kentucky Live Scoring | Louisville Live Scoring |
| Additional Information | Twitter | Coach Boland Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | 2017 Fact Book |
Feb. 2, 2017
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The top-ranked Virginia men’s tennis team (0-0, 0-0 ACC) begins the 2017 season by playing three road contests. On Friday, Feb. 3, Virginia will play at Vanderbilt (6-2, 0-0 SEC) at 6 p.m., followed by a 5 p.m. Saturday match at No. 15 Kentucky (5-1, 0-0 SEC). On Sunday, the Cavaliers jump into Atlantic Coast Conference play with a 3:30 p.m. match at Louisville (2-1, 0-0 ACC). All times are listed in Eastern Time.
Live scoring for all three matches will be available through the respective schools’ websites with links provided on VirginiaSports.com.
The defending national champions have two singles players and a doubles teams in the latest individual rankings. Senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Charlotte, N.C.) begins the season ranked No. 39 in the singles rankings. Senior J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.) will begin the season ranked No. 58. Kwiatkowski and senior Luca Corinteli (Alexandria, Va.) are ranked No. 20 in doubles. Freshman Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) is the top player in the ITA National Freshman/Newcomer rankings.
This will be the first meeting between the Cavaliers and the Commodores since 1991 with Vanderbilt leading the series 2-0-1. Vanderbilt started the season on January 15 with a loss to Northwestern before picking up six-straight victories. The Commodores fell 4-1 to North Carolina in the final of the ITA Kickoff Weekend regional championship in Chapel Hill.
Kentucky was also undefeated this season before the finals of the ITA Kickoff Weekend regional championship in Stillwater, Okla., where it fell 4-0 to No. 12 Oklahoma State. Ryotaro Matsamura is the Wildcats’ top-ranked singles player at No. 17. William Bushamuka is at No. 23 and Trey Yates is at No. 110. Virginia has won the last two meetings, including a 6-1 victory to open the 2016 season.
Louisville is 2-1 on the season coming into the weekend, but will play a doubleheader on Friday against Alabama A&T and Purdue before hosting the Cavaliers on Sunday. The Cardinals have lost all five previous match-ups with the Cavaliers, including falling 7-0 last season.
The Cavaliers will play their first home match on Saturday, Feb. 11, taking on No. 11 Florida at 5 p.m. the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boars Head Sports Center. For the second-straight year, Virginia will also be hosting the ITA National Team Indoor championship, a tournament UVA has won five of the last nine years, at the Boar’s Head Sports Club from Feb. 17-20. The event features 16 teams: the 15 schools who won both of their matches during the ITA Kick-Off Weekend and the host school. The tournament is held over four days, and begins on Friday with first-round play, followed by quarterfinals on Saturday, semifinals on Sunday and the championship match on Monday.