Men’s Tennis Rolls, Shabaz Named ACC Player of the Week
Wednesday, March 24 2010 by Tim
The #1-ranked Virginia Men’s Tennis team won three matches in as many days this past weekend by a combined tally of 21-4 as they continued their hot streak that started in early February.
After dropping their first regular season contest in several years – a 3-4 loss at #14 Kentucky, the Cavaliers have reeled off 17 consecutive wins, including their third consecutive ITA Indoors National Championship. None of the matches have really even been close, as Virginia has won by a combined score of 110-11. And they’re not exactly playing scrubs, either. That stretch included wins over #18 Virginia Tech, #15 Alabama, #8 Baylor, #7 Georgia, #5 Tennessee, #4Texas and #3 Ohio State (all rankings were at the time the matches were played). Only #4 Texas scored more than 2 points against the Cavaliers, and that was in an extended 13-point contest that the Cavaliers won handily, 9-4.
For his part in the most recent three wins, junior Michael Shabaz ( a Virginia native) was named ACC Men’s Tennis Co-Player of the Week. He won in both doubles and singles against Maryland on Friday and then absolutely crushed 16th-ranked Denes Lukacs – a very good player – in straight sets 3 & 2. According to the VirginiaSports.com press release, that’s Lukacs most lopsided loss in over two years.
The team is back in action this afternoon, taking on VCU at 3pm and Richmond at 6pm before getting back into some ACC action against Miami (Friday at 4pm) and Florida State (Sunday at noon) and then closing off the weekend against Delaware (Sunday at 4pm). Five matches in five days – let’s hope the Cavaliers extend that winning streak to 22 by the time its all over!