No. 5 Virginia Advances to NCAA Second Round, Faces South Carolina Saturday at 12 pm
The Cavaliers downed St. John's 4-0 and will now host No. 17 South Carolina on Saturday, May 4 at 12 p.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 5 Virginia men’s tennis team (22-4) advanced to the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship after picking up a 4-0 victory over St. John’s (19-6) on Friday at the Snyder Tennis Center.
The Cavaliers will take on No. 17 South Carolina (18-9) on Saturday (May 4) at 12 p.m. at Snyder in the second round of the tournament. NOTE: This time has been moved up one hour from its originally-scheduled time.
The Cavaliers won the doubles point against the Red Storm and picked up singles victories on courts two, four and five. Sophomore Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) clinched the victory for the Cavaliers on court four.
“First matches are always up-and-down and a little tough, but I thought the guys handled it relatively well,” said head coach Andres Pedroso. “It was windy and a tough day to play. It wasn’t pretty at times, but I thought both teams handled themselves well. Credit to St. John’s for a great season. They fought us hard and I was impressed with what I saw from them. Ryan Goetz and Brandon Nakashima were in cruise control today. I’m sure it wasn’t that easy of a job, but they were off the court pretty quick, and I am proud of them. Gianni Ross also did a great job. I thought we were really solid in doubles today and was very happy about our doubles point.”
Senior Henrik Wiersholm (Kirkland, Wash.) and freshman Brandon Nakashima (San Diego, Calif.) started things off with a 6-2 victory on the top doubles court. Junior Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) and senior Aswin Lizen (Douglas, Isle of Man) clinched the point with a 6-2 win on court three.
In singles, Nakashima sped to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Alan Nuñez Aguilera on court two to give UVA a 2-0 advantage. Freshman Ryan Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.) followed shortly after with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Udayan Bhakar on court five. Ross closed out a 6-3, 6-3 victory on court four to secure the Cavaliers’ spot in the second round.
With the victory, the Cavaliers improved to 29-0 in NCAA Tournament matches played in Charlottesville.
South Carolina advanced after defeating ETSU, 4-0, in Friday’s opening match.
Admission for Saturday’s match is free and free parking is available at the Culbreth Garage. Parking is also available at the Central Grounds Garage (hourly rates apply). There will be live scoring and a live video stream for the match through links posted on VirginiaSports.com.
The 16 teams advancing from the second round of the tournament will participate in two-team super regionals on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams, set to take place on May 10-11. The eight super regional winners will then advance to the finals site, the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., with the quarterfinals through championship matches being contested May 16-19.