A frantic weekend awaits Virginia tennis, as both the highly-ranked men’s and women’s teams are set to host two home games apiece before the postseason begins. The No. 1 Virginia (20-3, 9-1 ACC) men’s team is set to host No. 7 Wake Forest Friday and Miami Sunday. The No. 13 Cavalier (12-9, 7-5 ACC) women hosts Pittsburgh Friday and Notre Dame Sunday.
The men returned to occupy the coveted spot of top team in the nation, but will be tested greatly by the Demon Deacons (25-4, 9-1 ACC) Friday in a game that will decide the ACC regular season champion.
Senior Ryan Shane said he understands the stakes of the match, but isn’t putting any added pressure on himself or his teammates.
“We approach it just like any other match,” Shane said. “Obviously there’s a lot more riding on it now, but if you let that get to you too much it’ll affect how you play. So it’s just another regular season match against another ACC team, and we’re going to come out and leave it all on the court.”
Virginia has won the ACC regular season title for 12 straight years, and this is actually quite unfamiliar territory for the Cavaliers to bring it down to the last game, as they would have usually clinched the title by now.
Coach Brian Boland acknowledged the uniqueness of the situation, but spun it as a positive for men’s tennis overall.
“It is unusual for us to be in this position, but I think it’s a real positive and a reflection of the ACC conference,” Boland said. “And what a great job Tony Bresky has done at Wake. He was my assistant for 10 years, spent eight years with me at Virginia as well, so it should be a great match on Friday and our hope is that all of Charlottesville and the student-body comes out and supports us.”
At the same time as the men’s game Friday, the women will be facing off against Pittsburg.
The Virginia women have had a season embroiled in controversy as yet another player, junior Victoria Olivarez, is set to leave the team, for unknown reasons. This comes after seniors Maci Epstein and Skylar Morton also jumped ship a couple weeks earlier. However, they have battled through adversity and had a fine season, currently ranked thirteenth in the nation and winning a lot of tough games.
It is a huge Friday for Virginia tennis, and Shane sincerely hopes to have a large crowd cheering the teams on.
“Hopefully, we have a big crowd,” Shane said. “It helps us a lot, having people behind us cheering… I think it really drives us.”
The Virginia men have gone through a lot of adversity this year as well, including losing their first ACC game in years to North Carolina, but they have fought back and are now ranked the best team in the country.
Shane, Virginia’s captain, who is certainly not used to losing during his decorated tenure, saw some positives in losing a couple games early in the season.
“Losses are a part of the process, and especially with no [advantage], if we let us get us down then we’d be in shambles right now, but I think we’re stronger now and we’ve embraced everything, and it’s really helped us,” Shane said. “We can look back and see, what we can do better.”
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