March 23, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The No. 2 Virginia men's tennis team (15-0, 2-0 ACC) opens the weekend with a Friday, March 24 match at NC State (9-9, 0-3 ACC) at 4 p.m. at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in Raleigh, N.C.

The undefeated Cavaliers, ranked No. 2 in this week’s ITA team rankings, returned to ACC play last weekend with a 6-1 victory at No. 37 Notre Dame. The Cavaliers picked up the doubles point as well as victories at singles courts one through five to down the Irish. After dropping the doubles point in the first two matches of the season at Vanderbilt and Kentucky, the Cavaliers have earned the point in each of the last 13 matches. Senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Charlotte, N.C.) and junior Alexander Ritschard (Zurich, Switzerland) are 9-0 this season as a doubles team. Junior Collin Altamirano (Sacramento, Calif.) and senior J.C. Aragone (Yorba Linda, Calif.) have also won their last nine doubles matches.

Kwiatkowski has moved up to a No. 6 ranking in singles after spending the last month ranked at No. 9. Kwiatkowski is 11-1 in dual matches this season and has won his last 11 decisions. Aragone reached the 20-win mark in singles last week with a 21-6 record. He has also won his last 11 completed matches.

This will be the second ACC match of the week for the Wolfpack who fell 5-2 at Duke on Wednesday afternoon. NC State picked up wins from Nick Horton at No. 1 singles and Michael Ogden at No. 6 in the loss to the Blue Devils. The Wolfpack have dropped three-straight, falling 4-3 to Virginia Tech and 7-0 to North Carolina the week prior. NC State picked up a pair of wins at Hawai’i to close out its non-conference slate earlier in the month. Alexis Galarneau is 7-1 at No. 2 singles while Igot Saveljic is 7-2 at No. 3.

Virginia has won the last 18 meetings between the two teams. NC State’s last victory over the Cavaliers came in 1999.

The Cavaliers return home on Sunday, March 26 to host Duke (9-6, 2-2 ACC) at 1 p.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center. Virginia has won 15 matches in a row against Duke and 19 of the last 20. Prior to UVA’s current 19-1 run, the Blue Devils won 22 straight match-ups from 1985-2003.

Admission is free for all UVA home games.