Hurricanes Take on Virginia in NCAA Tennis Championships Round of 16
May 19, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Vying for an opportunity to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships, ninth-seeded Miami will face off with ACC rival and eighth-seeded Virginia Saturday afternoon at 9 p.m. (EST) at the Taube Stadium on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
Splitting each of the previous two matches, this will mark the third meeting this season between the ninth-ranked Hurricanes (20-4) and the eighth-ranked Cavaliers (23-8). In the first meeting, Miami snapped a two-year ACC unbeaten streak by Virginia with a 4-3 win in Charlottesville, Va. April 7. Virginia avenged the regular-season loss with a 4-2 victory over UM in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.
The winner of the UM-UVa match will face the winner of Saturday’s match between top-ranked Georgia and Notre Dame also slated for 9 p.m. (EST)
Second-year head coach Mario Rincon and the Hurricanes advanced to the round of 16 behind victories over Manhattan and Minnesota in the first and second rounds, respectively, to win the 2006 NCAA Men’s Tennis Coral Gables Regional.
Since the NCAA adopted a dual-match single-elimination team championship in 1977 Miami has advanced to the quarterfinals three times (1977, 87, 90). With just one round of 16 appearance since the tournament field was expanded to a 64-team field in 1999, Miami has yet to advance into the quarterfinal round in it’s last five NCAA Tournament appearances.
Headlining the UM lineup is third-ranked junior Luigi D’Agord, the 2006 ACC Player of the Year, 81st-ranked junior Josh Cohen and 99th-ranked freshman Daniel Vallverdu, the 2006 ACC Freshman of the Year.
Having won 19-straight, D’Agord is 33-4 overall and 20-1 in dual matches this season. His 34 wins are the fourth-most in a single season in UM history.
Playing at the No. 3 position, Cohen has won seven-straight and is 8-2 in his last 10 matches. He boasts an overall record of 27-6 in singles and a 15-4 mark in dual matches.
Vallverdu is 17-6 overall in his first season with the Hurricanes. Behind an overall 14-6 record in dual matches, he is 12-3 at the No. 2 position.
Virginia advanced to the round of 16 by claiming the Charlottesville Regional with wins over Army and Wake Forest. With a singles lineup that consists of four nationally-ranked players, the Cavaliers were the only team to have more All-ACC selections (6) than the Hurricanes (4).
