The Virginia men’s tennis team will have its hands full this weekend as it hosts two nationally ranked opponents: No. 15 Illinois Friday and No. 30 Notre Dame Sunday.
Although the Cavaliers lost three of their starting players from last season, they are currently ranked No. 5 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason poll — a drop from last season’s No. 1 ranking. The team has started its season on a good note, though, with a 7-0 win against William & Mary Tuesday that ran the Cavaliers’ regular-season winning streak to 35 matches.
Following an impressive performance last year, when Virginia went undefeated in the regular season and made it to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Georgia, the Cavaliers are looking to improve and return to the NCAA Tournament.
One of the team’s key players this year is sophomore Michael Shabaz. Shabaz finished with an overall 18-8 singles record during the 2007-08 season, including an impressive 8-1 conference record. Coming off a strong fall season, in which he beat several ranked opponents, he is currently ranked No. 11 in the ITA singles poll. In last Tuesday’s match against William & Mary, he finished with a win in singles play as well as a doubles victory while paired with senior Dominic Inglot.
Though the Cavaliers are without some of the players who contributed to last season’s success, Shabaz said he and his teammates believe this year can be just as good.
“Obviously, you can’t replace certain guys like Somdev [Devvarman], who was awesome,” he said. “At the same time, we feel that [the No. 5 ranking] is a good start and we’re looking to climb up.”
Usually, it is difficult to improve on the accomplishments of previous seasons, especially when key players graduate. So far this year, however, Virginia coach Brian Boland has been impressed with the progress his team has made.
“This is probably some of the most improvement I’ve seen out of a group, collectively, in my entire coaching career,” Boland said. “In terms as a team, they really do work hard. They want to get better; they’re really coach-able.”
When the team members work with each other to achieve a common goal, it leads to true accomplishments, Boland added.
“I really just want to see the team develop individually and collectively as a team — come together and push each other every day in practice, and the results will take care of themselves,” he said.
The players are trying to do what it takes to make this season just as successful as the last.
The team is “definitely working harder,” Shabaz said. “We took a different kind of approach to this season with practice, and guys were busting each other. We started doing individuals in the morning and we started practicing as a team in the afternoon. I think just the discipline — day in and day out with practices and stuff — definitely helped me.”
Under Boland’s direction, the Cavaliers continue to work on overall improvement by focusing on specific individual skills.
“I’m sure everything will come together in the end when we really peak,” Boland said.
Even though the Cavaliers expect to return to the NCAA Tournament, they try not to let the fanfare of rankings, streaks and records get in the way of progress.
“It’s not such a bad thing,” senior Dominic Inglot said of the Cavaliers’ No. 5 rank compared to last season’s No. 1. “People won’t be expecting us to do as well as I think we can do. It takes a lot of pressure off us, but yet we have the confidence in ourselves and the team’s ability to do well.”
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