Virginia Hosts Two Weekend Matches

April 5, 2018 –

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 42 Virginia men’s tennis team (11-7, 4-3 ACC) hosts a pair of conference matches this weekend, taking on No. 43 Miami (11-7, 2-4 ACC) on Friday, April 6 at 3 p.m., and No. 12 Florida State (22-1, 6-0 ACC) on Sunday, April 8 at 1 p.m.

Both matches are scheduled to take place outdoors at the Snyder Tennis Center. Admission is free for all Virginia home tennis matches. Live scoring and streaming video will be available through a link on VirginiaSports.com.

The Cavaliers had a five-match win streak snapped last Friday after being edged, 4-3, at No. 21 Duke. The Blue Devils won the doubles point by winning a tiebreaker on court one, 9-7, and broke a 3-3 tie with a 7-4 win in a tiebreaker to decide the third set on court six.

Junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) has the longest winning streak on the team right now at seven straight singles victories. Lizen, who is ranked No. 33 in the ITA singles rankings, is 27-3 in singles and a perfect 7-0 at court three after picking up a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory over UNC’s Simon Soendergaard last Sunday in Chapel Hill.

Freshman Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) is looking to pick up his 20th singles victory of the season this weekend. Lord is 19-9 in singles and had won seven straight before falling to No. 99 Robert Kelly at UNC last Sunday.

In doubles, Lord and sophomore Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) have won four of their last five decisions on the No. 2 court with their only loss coming in a tiebreaker at Clemson. Lizen and his partner, freshman Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) catapulted from unranked to No. 20 in this week’s rankings.

Miami rose three spots in the ITA rankings to No. 43 from after defeating then-No. 38 Louisville Sunday, 4-1, for its second top-40 victory of the season. the Canes have two representatives in the singles rankings, as freshman Adria Soriano debuts at No. 68 in the nation. Soriano holds a 12-2 singles record and rides the team’s longest win streak of five matches. The freshman joins his doubles partner No. 107 Christian Langmo in the rankings. Soriano and Langmo are ranked in doubles as well, ascending 24 spots to check in at No. 26.

Florida State is one of only two one-loss teams remaining in the country. The Seminoles have six wins over ranked opponents this season including downing No. 1 Wake Forest, 4-3, two weeks ago. FSU has won 13-straight matches heading into a Friday contest at Virginia Tech. No. 32 Lucas Poullain has a 17-1 record this spring and has won 10-straight matches. Guy Iradukunda is 21-6 in singles and is currently ranked No. 18.

Virginia leads the all-time series against Florida State, 27-13, and has won the last 19-straight dating back to 2003. UVA holds an 18-4 record against Miami and has won the last 16 meetings with the Hurricanes’ last win over the Cavaliers coming in 2006.

The Cavaliers’ homestand will stretch into next weekend when they host No. 25 NC State on Friday, April 13 and No. 1 Wake Forest on Sunday, April 15.