Date & Time Fri., March 30, 2018, 5 p.m.- No. 37 Virginia at No. 21 Duke
Sun., April 1, 2018, 1 p.m.- No. 37 Virginia at No. 5 North Carolina
Location Ambler Tennis Stadium, Durham, N.C. | Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Coverage Duke Live Scoring & Video | North Carolina Live Scoring
Additional Information Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | 2018 Stats | 2018 Fact Book

March 29, 2018 –

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 37 Virginia men’s tennis team (11-5, 4-1 ACC) plays a pair of conference road matches this weekend, playing at No. 21 Duke (12-8, 3-2 ACC) on Friday, March 30 at 5 p.m., and at No. 5 North Carolina (13-4, 4-1 ACC) on Sunday, April 1 at 1 p.m.

Live scoring will be available for both matches through links posted on VirginiaSports.com. Live video will also be available for the Duke match.

The Cavaliers come into the week riding a five-match win streak, including picking up road wins last weekend at Georgia Tech, 6-1, and Clemson, 4-2. Freshman Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) and sophomore Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) have won their last six singles matches, with S̮ծԮԦderlund, who is currently ranked No. 38 in singles, improving to 7-1 this spring. Lord is 9-1 in his last 10 matches. Junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) has won five-straight singles matches and leads the team with a 25-3 record. He is currently ranked No. 32.

Lizen and freshman Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) were named the ACC Doubles Team of the Week after downing a pair of ranked opponents last weekend. The pair took down the Yellow Jackets’ 11th-ranked tandem of Carlos Divar and Michael Kay, 6-1, and the No. 22 duo of Simon Baudry and Alex Favrot from Clemson, 6-2. They have won four-straight at No. 1 and have a 6-2 record on the top court this season.

Duke was ranked as high as No. 10 this season, but has fallen to No. 21 after suffering losses to Michigan, UNC, TCU and a 6-1 loss last Friday at Wake Forest. The Blue Devils have two ranked singles players, Nicolas Alvarez at No. 17 and Catalin Mateas at No. 113. Alvarez is 6-2 at No. 1 singles this season.

The Cavaliers have defeated the Blue Devils 16 straight times and have tallied 20 wins in the last 21 meetings.

First-year Virginia Director of Tennis and Head Men’s Coach Andrew Pedroso played four years for the Blue Devils, graduating from Duke in 2001. Pedroso helped lead the Blue Devils to four ACC titles while becoming a two-time All-America and was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary Team.

North Carolina is coming off a 4-3 loss to No. 1 Wake Forest on Wednesday. The Tar Heels dropped the doubles point but picked up victories on singles courts one, five and six. William Blumberg leads the team with a No. 2 ranking and a 9-3 record on court one. Blaine Boyden has won his last 14 matches, playing primarily on courts five and six. No. 34 Benjamin Sigouin is 8-2 at No. 2 singles this season.

This will be the first meeting for the Cavaliers and Tar Heels since facing one another in the NCAA title match last May in Athens, Ga., where Virginia topped North Carolina 4-2. Blumberg was the NCAA singles runner-up after falling to UVA’s Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, 6-4, 7-6 (5), in the final.

These are the last of four straight road contests for the Cavaliers before returning home to host No. 46 Miami on Friday, April 6 at 3 p.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center. Admission is free for all Virginia home tennis matches.