UVA Men's Tennis Beats Tennessee 4-3 to Advance to ITA Indoor Quarterfinals

After suffering two losses to top five opponents over the last three matches, the Virginia men's tennis team got back on track with a big 4-3 victory over Tennessee in the first round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Friday in Seattle.

This was a rematch of the 2022 NCAA semifinals, a match in which Virginia swept Tennessee 5-0 to advance to the finals. The rematch was a much more thrilling affair, coming down to the final individual singles matches.

The No. 12 seed Volunteers captured the doubles point to start the match. No. 34 Emile Hudd and Shunsuke Mitsui defeated UVA's Mans Dahlberg and Inaki Montes and the Cavaliers answered with No. 20 Chris Rodesch and Ryan Goetz taking down the No. 7-ranked pairing of Johannus Monday and Pat Harper 6-4. But, court 3 saw Alexander Kiefer and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg fall to Blaise Bicknell and Angel Diaz 6-4 to give the doubles point to Tennessee.

The No. 5 seed Cavaliers responded well to the adversity of the rough start by taking the first three points in singles action. No. 29 Chris Rodesch defeated No. 79 Blaise Bicknell 6-4, 6-4 on court 2 and No. 30 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg took down No. 56 Shunsuke Mitsui 6-3, 6-3 on court 3. Mans Dahlberg added a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Boris Kozlov on court 5 to make it 3-1 in favor of the Cavaliers, who were suddenly just one point away from advancing.

Tennessee wouldn't go away easily, though. No. 70 Inaki Montes won the first set against No. 18 Johannus Monday on the top court, but Monday won the second and third sets to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Ryan Goetz sealed the deal for Virginia on court 4, defeating Tennessee's Emile Hudd 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to clinch the match for the Cavaliers. Tennessee's Angel Diaz defeated UVA's Douglass Yaffa 7-5, 6-2 on court 6 to make the final score 4-3.

With the win, Virginia (8-2) advances to the ITA Indoor quarterfinals, where the Cavaliers will face No. 4 Michigan on Saturday at 4:30pm with a spot in the semifinals on the line.

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