Virginia Begins NCAA Championship Friday in New York

May 9, 2018 –

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia has earned an at-large bid to the 2018 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship and will open play this week in the New York Regional, hosted by Columbia University, being held Friday and Saturday, May 11-12, at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

The Cavaliers (13-12) will face VCU (16-9) in a first-round match on Friday, May 11 at 10 a.m. Columbia (17-4), the No. 16 overall seed in the tournament, will take on Monmouth (15-13) at 1 p.m. on Friday. The winners of the first-round matches will face one another on Saturday, May12, at 12 p.m.

Admission is free for the event. Live streaming will not be available for the matches at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, but live scoring will be available through a link posted on VirginiaSports.com. Fans attending the event are encouraged to park in Lot B.

Virginia, the defending national champion, has won four of the last five NCAA titles, including each of the last three, and has reached the semifinals in 10 of the last 11 seasons. UVA has advanced to the Round of 16 each of the last 14 years and the quarterfinals 13-straight times.

The Cavaliers had two players earn All-ACC honors this year. Sophomore Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) was named to the first team while junior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) earned a spot on the league’s second team. Both players will be competing at the 2018 NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Championship, being held May 23-28 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex. Söderlund has played No. 1 singles this season for the Cavaliers, posting an 11-5 record on the top court. Last season’s ITA Atlantic Region Rookie of the Year moved up to a career-best No. 24 in the latest ITA singles rankings. Söderlund has seven wins over ranked opponents this season, including topping Illinois’ Aleks Vukic, who is currently No. 13 in the ITA rankings.

Lizen has the highest win tally on the Cavaliers this season, posting a 30-6 record in singles. Ranked as high as No. 10 in singles this spring, Lizen went 12-1 in singles in the fall and opened the spring winning his first eight singles matches to start the year, 20-1. Lizen was the ITA Atlantic Regional Singles champion and advanced to the Round of 16 at the Oracle ITA Fall National Championships. He was 18-5 this spring in singles, including a 10-match win streak that stretched from March 11 through April 13.

Freshman Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) comes into the tournament having won his last three singles matches, including straight-set victories over Louisville’s George Hedley and Wake Forest’s Christian Seraphim in the ACC Championship. Lord, who is 23-12 in singles this season overall and 15-9 in dual matches, is a perfect 5-0 at the No. 5 court.

Lord and Söderlund are ranked No. 67 in doubles, with an 8-3 record. Lizen and freshman Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) are ranked No. 42 in doubles with a 9-8 record as a tandem.

VCU is making its 22nd NCAA appearance all-time. The Rams picked up their second-straight Atlantic 10 Conference Championship two weeks ago when they downed Dayton, 4-1, in the final. VCU has been led this season by juniors Arvid Noren and Vitor Lima, who have split time at No. 1 singles as well as freshman Inigo Torre Martin, who is a team-best 18-6 in singles action, playing on the bottom three courts. Virginia is 16-11 all-time against the Rams and has won the last seven meetings. VCU’s last victory over the Cavaliers was a 5-1 victory on April 6, 2000.

Columbia, the No. 16 overall seed in the tournament, is coming off its fifth-consecutive Ivy League title. A total of six members of the Columbia men’s tennis team earned All-Ivy accolades, led by Player of the Year Victor Pham. Pham, who qualified for the NCAA Singles Championship, was the top singles player for the Ivy League champions, going 24-8 this year and being ranked as high as No. 7, while taking second at the Oracle ITA Masters. Joining Pham on the All-Ivy teams were first team doubles recipients Jack Lin and William Matheson, second team All-Ivy singles players Lin and Jackie Tang, and second team doubles honorees Adam Ambrozy and Michal Rolski.

This is the first time the Lions have ever hosted a men’s tennis regional in their 13th overall appearance in the tournament. Columbia has advanced to NCAA Sweet Sixteen play two times in both 2014 and 2015. The Lions won their first two matches in both years. The Lions have an all-time NCAA Tournament record of 5-12.

Virginia is 6-0 all-time against Columbia. In the last two previous years, Columbia has played in the Charlottesville regional in the NCAA Championship, falling 4-0 last season to the Cavaliers in the second round. Columbia also played in Charlottesville in January during ITA Kickoff Weekend, earning a spot in the field of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship with victories over Ole Miss and Texas Tech.

Monmouth is making its third-straight NCAA Championship appearance after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title. The Hawks come into the tournament on an 11-game winning streak, including a 4-0 sweep over Fairfield in the MAAC semifinals and a 4-0 sweep of Marist in the MAAC Championship. Monmouth finished the 2018 regular season campaign with a perfect 7-0 MAAC record, including five sweeps. All six starters from the squad were named to an All-MAAC team. In addition, junior Nicola Pipoli was named MAAC Player of the Year after a perfect 7-0 record in MAAC singles play and a 6-1 record in MAAC doubles play. Freshman Will Cooke Wharton was named MAAC Rookie of the Year and All-MAAC First Team at No. 5 singles after going 7-0 in conference singles play. Alex Kasarov was named Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the second straight season.

Monmouth has played both Virginia and Columbia this season, falling 4-2 to the Cavaliers and 7-0 to the Lions. Virginia has defeated Monmouth in the first round of the NCAA Championship in each of the last two years. The Cavaliers are 5-0 all-time against the Hawks.

The winner of the regional will advance to the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where the final 16 teams will compete for the national championship May 18-22. The event will be hosted by Wake Forest University..