Virginia Plays Final Two Home Matches This Weekend

April 12, 2018 –

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 49 Virginia men’s tennis team (11-9, 4-5 ACC) hosts a pair of conference matches this weekend against top-25 opponents, taking on No. 23 NC State (15-5, 5-4 ACC) on Friday, April 13 at 3 p.m., and No. 1 Wake Forest (18-2, 7-1 ACC) on Sunday, April 15 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 are coming off a 5-2 loss on Sunday against No. 12 Florida State, the first of three-straight matches against top-25 teams. Including the match at No. 5 North Carolina on April 1, Virginia will face four top-25 opponents in a five-match span and plays eight-straight matches against teams in the top-50, dating back to a 4-2 road win at then-No. 39 Clemson.

Junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) comes into the weekend with a nine-match win streak in singles. Lizen picked up his second win of the year over a top-20 opponent last Sunday when he downed No. 18 Guy Iradukunda of Florida State, 6-4, 7-6 (6). Lizen moved up to No. 28 in this week’s ITA singles rankings. He is 29-3 in singles and a perfect 8-0 at court three. Lizen and partner Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) are ranked No. 27 in the ITA doubles rankings.

Sophomore Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) picked up a pair of wins over ranked opponents last weekend, downing No. 68 Adria Soriano of Miami and No. 51 Aziz Dougaz of Florida State. SÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘¶derlund is 9-3 this season at No. 1 singles. SÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘¶derlund is No. 35 in this week’s ITA singles rankings.

NC State checks in at No. 23 in the nation as of the April 10 release of the Oracle/ITA Team Rankings. The Wolfpack has yet to fall out of the top 30 of the rankings since earning its first team ranking of the season on Feb. 20. NC State has won its last four matches, which ties Virginia Tech for the conference’s longest active winning streak. It is the first time since the 2008 season that the Wolfpack has won four ACC matches in a row. Alexis Galarneau is No. 37 in singles with a 9-7 record on court one. Igor Saveljic entered the singles rankings for the first time in his Wolfpack career, coming in at No. 121 this week, with a 10-9 record in dual matches this year.

Wake Forest, the 2018 ITA National Team Indoor champions, are in a three-way tie for first place in the ACC with Florida State and North Carolina. Individually, five singles players and five doubles teams are ranked in the latest ITA rankings. The singles rankings are highlighted by Petros Chrysochos (No. 5) and Borna Gojo (No. 8), while Chrysochos and Skander Mansouri team up to form the second-ranked doubles team in the country.

Virginia has defeated NC State in each of the last 19 meetings. The Wolfpack’s last victory over the Cavaliers came in 1999. The Cavaliers lost last year’s regular-season meeting against Wake Forest, but topped the Demon Deacons, 4-3, in the ACC Championship final.

The Cavaliers will be wrapping up the home portion of the 2018 schedule this weekend and will close out the regular season next Sunday, April 22, when they play at No. 40 Virginia Tech at 1 p.m.