Virginia coach Brian Boland's team hosts an NCAA Tournament Regional for the fourth straight year.

The Virginia men's tennis team has earned the right to host an NCAA Tournament Regional for the fourth consecutive year. The Charlottesville pod features four teams from the state as Hampton, Old Dominion, and Virginia Tech also received slots in the bracket. The Cavaliers face the Pirates on Friday, May 11 at 10 a.m., while the Hokies and Monarchs square off at 1 p.m. on the same day.

"We are excited to have a chance to once again host a regional," UVa coach Brian Boland said in a news release. "Our fans have given us tremendous support all season long and we look forward to seeing some great crowds for the NCAA Tournament. With four teams from the state of Virginia in this regional, it should provide for a great atmosphere."

Virginia has advanced out of the regional phase for three straight seasons. To move on this year, the No. 3 Cavaliers (26-3) will have to overcome Hampton (15-8), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Champions, and either No. 31 ODU (21-7) or No. 39 Virginia Tech (13-12).

The winners of Friday's matches will face off on Saturday, May 12 at 1 p.m. in the second round.

With the NCAA Tournament up next, Coach Boland tackles some more Sabre user questions.

Question 1 recap: Fans want to support the team in the best way possible for the NCAA Tournament matches. As you've said before, college tennis is different than pro tennis in terms of the crowd. Can you provide some guidelines for what “boisterous but appropriate” behavior would be for fans?

Coach Boland: We have some of the best fans in the country and it really helps when they are loud. However, tennis is a little different than basketball or football in the way fans can cheer. The one thing that is constant is that fans can support and cheer for our players as much as they want and as loud as they want. However, they cannot make any negative comments toward an opposing player or an official. We will be hosting an NCAA Regional May 11-12 and I really hope we will get our best and most vocal crowd of the year to support us.

Question 2 recap: Do you do advance scouting of the other 3 teams in UVa's regional for the NCAA Tournament (i.e., phone calls to other coaches in their conference, film, etc.)? Do you practice specifically for the upcoming opponents and their potential styles?

Coach Boland: Yes, we will do scouting for the other three teams in the regional. Our main scouting will be done for our first round opponent. We will have a chance to watch the other two teams in our regional play so if we are fortunate enough to advance past the first round we will be able to have a good scouting report ourselves.

Over the course of the year we do extra practice to get ready for specific opponents. We try not to over do too much because you never know when a team is going to change their line-up so you do not want to be ready to play only one type of player.

Question 3 recap: How do you handle the long break between the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament? Is it a good thing or a bad thing (or a little of both) in your opinion to have that much time off?

Coach Boland: We practice hard. Actually the long break comes at a good time as we have exams during this time so it's a tough time on the guys. However, we do try to focus on conditioning and working on specific technical weaknesses. I think the break can be good and bad. I feel like we are playing our best tennis of the year right now so in one way I would just like to keep rolling. However, the ACC Tournament is emotionally and physically draining so maybe a break for some guys is more beneficial.

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