Virginia Begins ACC Championship on Thursday
| 2018 ACC Men’s Tennis Championship | |
| Date & Time | April 26-27: 2:30 p.m.; April 28-29: 2 p.m. |
| Location | Cary Tennis Park | Cary, N.C. |
| Coverage | Live Scoring | Live Video (Sat. and Sun. Only) |
| Tournament Information | ACC Championship Website | Bracket (.pdf) |
| Additional Information | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | 2018 Stats | 2018 Fact Book | Match Notes |
April 25, 2018 –
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s tennis team (12-11, 5-7 ACC) begins postseason play this week by competing at the 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Tennis Championship, being held April 25-29 at the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C.
The Cavaliers, who have a first-round bye, open the tournament by taking on Louisville (15-10, 5-7 ACC) on Thursday, April 26, in a second-round match at 2:30 p.m.
Live scoring will be available through a link on VirginiaSports.com.
The Cavaliers and Cardinals tied for eighth place in the conference standings. Louisville earned the No. 8 seed in the tournament by virtue of a 6-1 victory over UVA in the regular season. Louisville is ranked No. 41 in this week’s ITA rankings while the Cavaliers are No. 48.
Junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) leads UVA in victories this season with a 30-5 singles record. Lizen is 8-2 in his last 10 matches and is 9-1 at No. 3 singles this season. Lizen has the best ACC record among the Cavaliers, going 9-3 in conference matches. Lizen had won 10-straight matches before being edged in his last two matches. He is ranked No. 46 in singles and 34 in doubles in the latest ITA rankings. Sophomore Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) is also ranked in singles and doubles, reaching a career-best No. 26 in this week’s singles rankings while being ranked No. 63 in doubles.
Freshman Kyrylo Tsygura (North Potomac, Md.) comes into the ACC Championship having won his last three matches on three different courts (six, five and four). Tsygura is 7-5 overall in ACC matches this year.
The Cardinals’ Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff stands at No. 53 in singles with a 19-9 overall record and is 13-4 in dual matches playing mostly at No. 1. Parker Wynn is No. 103 in the ITA singles rankings and carries a team-best 25-10 overall record and is 15-5 in dual matches mainly at No. 2. The 15th-ranked duo of Morin-Kougoucheff and Wynn lead the Cards with a 27-10 overall record mark as Louisville’s No. 1 doubles team.
Virginia is the defending ACC Champion, downing Wake Forest, 4-3, in the 2017 final in Rome, Ga. The Cavaliers have won 12 ACC Championships (2004-05, 2007-15, 2017), tied with Duke for second-most in the history of the conference and trailing only North Carolina. Söderlund is the only player on UVA’s active roster to have played in last year’s ACC Championship.
The winner of Thursday’s match will move on to face top-seeded Wake Forest in the quarterfinals Friday at 2:30 p.m.