The No. 30 Virginia men's tennis team easily disposed of both Maryland and Howard yesterday at Snyder Tennis Center to move to 10-1 in its last 11 matches.
The Cavaliers (20-3, 4-1 ACC) dropped only one set throughout both matches against the two struggling squads. The Terrapins (9-7, 0-5 ACC) have lost four in a row and the Bison dropped to 1-9 on the year.
Virginia swept the Terrapins in doubles to go up 1-0 early and then clinched the match less than an hour into singles play with No. 1 Doug Stewart's 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Pierre Rudder.
"We did a good job focusing throughout," Virginia coach Brian Boland said. "The team as a whole played really well and did what they needed to do to get the job done."
Stewart, who is ranked No. 42 in the country in singles, struggled early in the second set before cruising to victory.
"Something I've been trying to work on is getting off on good starts in the second set, so it was pretty frustrating not to," Stewart said. "I started getting more first serves in and I was all right after that."
Freshman Rylan Rizza and sophomore Chris Gonyar made quick work of their opponents at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots respectively. Gonyar's 6-1, 6-1 victory over Troy Demers moved him to second on the team in wins with 29.
Rizza smashed a spectacular inside-out backhand on Chris Chiu's serve to jump ahead 3-0 and take full control of the match. Rizza went on to win 6-3, 6-1.
"I was a little shocked to hit that big of a shot," Rizza said. "But once I did I was pretty excited; it gave me another break to start taking advantage in the second set."
No. 5 Stephen Rozek and No. 6 Nick Meythaler also delivered straight set victories for the Cavaliers. Rozek defeated Rory Theis 6-0, 6-2 while Meythaler handled Scott Peters 6-3, 6-2.
In the No. 4 match, freshman Darrin Cohen split sets with David Reichsfeld before winning a tiebreaker to earn a 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 victory and a sweep for the Cavaliers.
The doubles teams of Gonyar/Stephen Nolen, Meythaler/Rizza and Cohen/Stewart were all victorious against the Terrapins, putting the Cavaliers up 1-0 and setting the tone for a Virginia sweep.
Howard put up even less of a fight than the Terrapins, failing to pick up even a single set in all nine matches on the way to a 7-0 defeat.
Stewart, Rozak and Meythanler started in the top three singles spots and all picked up their second singles win of the day. Freshmen Travis Triplett and Mike Downing and sophomore Dillon Walker gained victories in the final three singles matches.
The Cavaliers came into last week ranked No. 21 in the country, the schools highest ranking since 1997, but Saturday's 4-3 loss to No. 41 Florida State dropped Virginia nine slots in the rankings.
Despite the loss in Tallahassee last weekend, the Cavaliers have shown marked improvement in doubles play. Virginia earned the doubles point against the Seminoles before falling in singles, and swept all three matches against both the Terrapins and the Bison.
"We have been working a lot on our doubles," Rizza said. "Earlier in the season we were struggling to win our doubles points, so we started really working on it in practice and its beginning to pay off."
This season marks only the fifth time in history that the team has achieved at least 20 victories and the first time such a feat has been accomplished since 1984.
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