Virginia senior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski claimed the men's tennis singles national championship Monday in Athens, Ga., with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over North Carolina's William Blumberg, whom Kwiatkowski just lost to in the team championship last week, 6-3, 6-2, and also fell to in the ACC tournament semifinals.
Kwiatkowski is the third UVa men's player to win singles titles after Somdev Devvarman (2007 and
2008) and Ryan Shane (2015). Danielle Collins won two singles titles on the women's side -- last year and 2014. Kwiatkowski, by virtue of capturing the crown, earns an automatic bid to the main draw of the U.S. Open in September.
Kwiatkowski's victory officially caps the season for UVa, which, in Brian Boland's final year leading the program, won the ITA national indoor title in the winter, the ACC championship, the NCAA team crown, and now a singles gold. What a year.
Baseball: On Sunday, the regional hosts for the NCAA tournament were revealed, and Charlottesville was not one of them, meaning UVa would not be staying home. The full field was announced Monday. The No. 2-seeded Cavaliers (42-14) were shipped to Forth Worth, Texas, where the No. 1 seed is TCU (42-16), the No. 3 seed is Dallas Baptist (40-19), and the No. 4 seed is Central Connecticut State (36-20). Dallas Baptist, the Patriots, are Virginia's first opponent Friday at 4 p.m. I'll have short looks at each team later.
There was much outrage among Virginia fans and confusion throughout the college baseball world about UVa being left out of the top 16 seeds. Nearly everyone was in consensus that it was a bad decision by the committee. What's more, Clemson received one of the top 16 seeds and is hosting despite losing to Virginia 10-2 in their final ACC tournament game (they split the season series, with Clemson taking two of three in the regular season), having a worse overall record (39-19) and having lost 11 of their past 16 games. In fact, 12 of the top 16 teams have worse winning percentages than Virginia, and UVa was actually just 37-20 as a host a year ago. The one knock on the Wahoos was a weak non-conference schedule. Otherwise, UVa had a very solid resume to at least host a regional. As I stated here before, it was unlikely the Cavaliers would'e been a top-eight seed, but a top-16 seed seemed fairly certain. Getting left out seems bizarre. Hopefully, UVa can show how wrong the committee was this weekend.
Unfortunately, it looks like Virginia will be without Noah Murdock and Adam Haseley on the mound as they deal with arm injuries, though it seems like there is more of a chance that Haseley will play. At the very least, he should be in the lineup in center field. We should know more about their status sometime Friday.
Now, I'm just going to take a quick look around some of the spring sports at UVa:
Men's lacrosse: UVa finished its first season under new offensive-minded coach Lars Tiffany just 8-7. The 'Hoos went 0-4 in the ACC, continuing a trend of poor showings in the conference the past several years. The team started out 3-0 but things unraveled from there, and Virginia lost four games by a goal each, two of those defeats coming in overtime.
Women's lacrosse: Virginia went 12-9, losing to North Carolina, 23-12, in the second round of the NCAA tournament after downing Elon, 11-9.
Women's tennis: Virginia went just 11-13 and did not make the NCAA tournament, and coach Mark Guilbeau resigned at the end of the season. It was a far cry from a year ago when, despite a 19-11 overall record, UVa made a run and got into the NCAA tournament quarterfinals before bowing out to Vanderbilt. Three years ago, the Cavaliers also lost in the quarterfinals, losing to Stanford and finishing 24-6. Two seasons ago, Virginia went 23-6 and lost in the round of 16 to Baylor.
Men's golf: Virginia finished 10th at the NCAA championships in Sugar Grove, Ill., its best showing in the sport in school history, topping an 11th-place finish in 2010 and 1946. Jimmy Stanger was the highest Cavalier finisher in 11th, the fifth-best showing by a UVa player in the event. Stanger won the ACC individual title in April in a playoff.
Kwiatkowski is the third UVa men's player to win singles titles after Somdev Devvarman (2007 and
 |
| Thai-Son Kwiatkowski celebrates his NCAA singles title. |
Kwiatkowski's victory officially caps the season for UVa, which, in Brian Boland's final year leading the program, won the ITA national indoor title in the winter, the ACC championship, the NCAA team crown, and now a singles gold. What a year.
Baseball: On Sunday, the regional hosts for the NCAA tournament were revealed, and Charlottesville was not one of them, meaning UVa would not be staying home. The full field was announced Monday. The No. 2-seeded Cavaliers (42-14) were shipped to Forth Worth, Texas, where the No. 1 seed is TCU (42-16), the No. 3 seed is Dallas Baptist (40-19), and the No. 4 seed is Central Connecticut State (36-20). Dallas Baptist, the Patriots, are Virginia's first opponent Friday at 4 p.m. I'll have short looks at each team later.
There was much outrage among Virginia fans and confusion throughout the college baseball world about UVa being left out of the top 16 seeds. Nearly everyone was in consensus that it was a bad decision by the committee. What's more, Clemson received one of the top 16 seeds and is hosting despite losing to Virginia 10-2 in their final ACC tournament game (they split the season series, with Clemson taking two of three in the regular season), having a worse overall record (39-19) and having lost 11 of their past 16 games. In fact, 12 of the top 16 teams have worse winning percentages than Virginia, and UVa was actually just 37-20 as a host a year ago. The one knock on the Wahoos was a weak non-conference schedule. Otherwise, UVa had a very solid resume to at least host a regional. As I stated here before, it was unlikely the Cavaliers would'e been a top-eight seed, but a top-16 seed seemed fairly certain. Getting left out seems bizarre. Hopefully, UVa can show how wrong the committee was this weekend.
Unfortunately, it looks like Virginia will be without Noah Murdock and Adam Haseley on the mound as they deal with arm injuries, though it seems like there is more of a chance that Haseley will play. At the very least, he should be in the lineup in center field. We should know more about their status sometime Friday.
Now, I'm just going to take a quick look around some of the spring sports at UVa:
Men's lacrosse: UVa finished its first season under new offensive-minded coach Lars Tiffany just 8-7. The 'Hoos went 0-4 in the ACC, continuing a trend of poor showings in the conference the past several years. The team started out 3-0 but things unraveled from there, and Virginia lost four games by a goal each, two of those defeats coming in overtime.
Women's lacrosse: Virginia went 12-9, losing to North Carolina, 23-12, in the second round of the NCAA tournament after downing Elon, 11-9.
Women's tennis: Virginia went just 11-13 and did not make the NCAA tournament, and coach Mark Guilbeau resigned at the end of the season. It was a far cry from a year ago when, despite a 19-11 overall record, UVa made a run and got into the NCAA tournament quarterfinals before bowing out to Vanderbilt. Three years ago, the Cavaliers also lost in the quarterfinals, losing to Stanford and finishing 24-6. Two seasons ago, Virginia went 23-6 and lost in the round of 16 to Baylor.
Men's golf: Virginia finished 10th at the NCAA championships in Sugar Grove, Ill., its best showing in the sport in school history, topping an 11th-place finish in 2010 and 1946. Jimmy Stanger was the highest Cavalier finisher in 11th, the fifth-best showing by a UVa player in the event. Stanger won the ACC individual title in April in a playoff.
Comments
Post a Comment