Men’s tennis suffers first loss to No. 1 Virginia

John Rowland

After going 4-0 in its 2016 campaign, the UK Men’s Tennis team would be dealt its first loss as the Cats suffered a 6-1 loss at the hands of the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers.

Doubles play would begin with junior Nils Ellefsen and senior Kevin Lai (UK) on the first court facing No. 15 Ryan Shane and Luca Corinteli (UV). Ellefsen and Lai would suffer a 6-2 loss.

Enzo Wallart and Ryotaro Matsumura’s (UK) match with No. 5 ranked Mac Styslinger and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UV) would go unfinished as the third match would be the doubles clinch for Virginia. Clinching the third match would be Collin Altamirano and J.C. Aragone (UV) as they defeated William Bushamuka and Charles Minc (UK) 6-2.

In the first singles match, No. 79 Bushamuka (UK) would defeat No. 11 Ryan Shane (VA) by a final score of 7-6, 6-3. This would notch the only win for the Cats in the match, as well as improving Bushamuka (the reigning NCAA Singles champion) to 5-0 on the season.

In the second singles match, No. 2 Kwiatkowski (UV) would hand Matsumura (UK) a 7-6, 6-1 loss. With the loss, Matsumura’s record falls to 4-1. Kwiatkowski is the reigning ITA All-American singles champion from last fall.

Altamirano (UV) would down No. 117 Ellefsen (UK) in the third singles match with a final score of 7-5, 6-4. This would also drop Ellefsen to 4-1 on the season as well after starting this season 4-0 in singles play.

In the fourth match, Styslinger (UV) would hand the loss to sophomore Trey Yates (UK), a final score of 6-2, 6-4. Yates record now falls to 1-3 on the season seeing close losses in those of which he lost.

The fifth match would see No. 74 Aragone (UV) defeating Wallart (UK) by a final score of 6-3, 6-4. This loss would drop Wallart to 2-3 on the season.

The sixth match would slate No. 90 Henrik Wiersholm (UV) against Gus Benson (UK) ending with a 6-4, 6-2 loss for Benson. This would notch Benson’s third match on the season and make him 2-1 on the year.