No. 13 Virginia Hosts No. 1 Wake Forest on Friday
Friday Live Video | Friday Live Stats | Sunday Live Stats
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 13 Virginia men’s tennis team (5-1, 1-1 ACC) hosts No. 1 Wake Forest (6-0, 0-0 ACC) on Friday, February 8, at 5 p.m. at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.
The Cavaliers close out the weekend by traveling to play at Boston College (3-1, 0-0 ACC) on Sunday, February 10, at 12 p.m.
Virginia and Wake Forest have combined to win the last four NCAA team titles (Virginia 2015-17, Wake Forest 2018) and the last two ITA National Team Indoor championships (UVA 2017, Wake 2018).
Despite both teams being members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, this is a non-conference contest. The two will meet again on Sunday, March 17 in Winston-Salem for their ACC match.
Live streaming video and live scores will be available for Friday’s match while just live scores are available on Sunday. All the necessary links will be posted on VirginiaSports.com.
The Cavaliers fell one spot to No. 13 in this week’s Oracle/ITA Men’s Rankings. Wake Forest remained atop of the rankings, receiving 10 of 11 first-place votes.
Last weekend, Virginia rebounded from being edged 4-3 at Notre Dame on Friday by picking up a 5-2 road victory at Kentucky on Sunday.
Junior Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) and redshirt senior Henrik Wiersholm (Kirkland, Wash.) each picked up a pair of victories last weekend to improve to 6-0 in singles this season. Soderlund has split time between the No. 1 and No. 2 courts, going 3-0 on each, while Wierholm moved up to Court 3 last weekend, picking up straight-set victories over Axel Nefve and Cesar Bourgois.
Wiersholm and doubles partner freshman Brandon Nakashima (San Diego, Calif.) are also undefeated this season, with a 5-0 record.
Sophomore Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) is the top-ranked UVA singles player at No. 68. Freshman Ryan Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.) is currently No. 72. Söderlund, who did not play collegiate matches in the fall, returned to the rankings at No. 119.
Wake Forest qualified for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships with victories over BYU (4-0) and Memphis (4-1).
Bar Botzer and Petros Chrysochos are the reigning ACC Doubles Team of the Week. In Wake Forest’s lone dual match last week, the pair teamed up at the No. 1 doubles position to defeat Oklahoma State’s top doubles team of Artur Dubinski and Maxim Tybar, 6-2. The victory would help the Deacs clinch the doubles point and kick-start a 6-1 victory over the 20th-ranked Cowboys.
Chrysochos, the top-ranked singles player in the ITA, won the singles title at the 2018 ITA Fall Championships. He is also the reigning NCAA singles champion. The Demon Deacons have four players ranked in the top-100, including Botzer at No. 21.
Boston College will travel to play at Notre Dame on Friday afternoon before returning home to host UVA. The Eagles head into the weekend having won three-straight matches, including a 7-0 victory over UConn. They do not have any ranked players.
Next week, the Cavaliers will head to Chicago to compete in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. Virginia will not be back in action on the home courts until Friday, March 22 when it hosts Georgia Tech.