The No. 2 Virginia men’s tennis team suffered a tough loss to No. 11 Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. The Cavaliers fall to 8-2 on the year with this loss and the previous one to UNC. However, it is important to note Virginia was operating shorthanded. Senior standout Ryan Shane was nursing an injury, causing the Cavaliers to go with an altered lineup.
The match began with Virginia sweeping doubles point with two tough wins, but the challenge came with the singles lineup that had to be altered without their No. 1 player on the ladder.
Without Shane, sophomore Collin Altamirano took over the top spot. Illinois junior Jared Hiltzek defeated Altamirano by a score of 6-2, 6-3. Beyond that, the Cavaliers lost a tough one when Fighting Illini sophomore Aleks Vukic defeated junior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.
Consolation wins for Virginia came after junior J.C. Aragone defeated junior Julian Childers in a pair of tiebreaks, 7-6, 7-6 and sophomore Henrik Wiersholm defeating redshirt freshman Pablo Landa 6-4, 6-2. Overall, the Cavaliers lost four singles matches at the 1, 2, 3 and 6 spots in the ladder and were upset by a final score of 4-3.
Ultimately, this match was a good test against a tough opponent, but Virginia now hopes for Shane to get healthy as it prepares to gear up for ACC play.
Conference action begins Friday with a match against Louisville in Kentucky, and then the Cavaliers are off to Blacksburg to take on Virginia Tech Sunday.
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