Virginia Men's Tennis Sweeps Navy and Ole Miss, Advances to Round of 16

The Cavaliers' defense of their national title has gotten off to a strong start. The No. 5 seed Virginia men's tennis team has advanced to the Round of 16 of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship for the 17th time in the last 18 seasons after earning a pair of sweeps over Navy and Ole Miss this weekend at Boar's Head in Charlottesville.

NCAA First Round - Saturday: No. 5 Virginia 4, Navy 0

Ryan Goetz and Alexander Kiefer opened things up with a 6-2 win and Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won 7-5 to clinch the doubles point for the Cavaliers. In singles play, von der Schulenburg was sharp with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Luke Garner and Mans Dahlberg picked up a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Aniketh Ayinala on court 6 to give UVA a 3-0 lead. Alexander Kiefer secured the clinching point for Virginia with a 6-1, 6-1 win over J.J. Etterbeek on court 5. Rodesch and Inaki Montes were both one game away from winning their matches when play was suspended.

NCAA Second Round - Sunday: No. 5 Virginia 4, Ole Miss 0

The Rebels gave the Cavaliers a good fight in doubles competition with Rodesch and von der Schulenburg winning 7-5 and Montes and William Woodall winning 6-4 to clinch the doubles point. Goetz and Kiefer were tied with their opponents 5-5 when UVA secured the doubles point.

Goetz began singles action with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Lukas Engelhardt on court 4 and Kiefer followed that up with a 7-5, 6-1 win on court 5 to move the Cavaliers to within one point of advancing. Jeffrey von der Schulenburg had the honors of clinching the match, taking his first set via tiebreaker before cruising in the second set to a 7-6, 6-1 win over Simon Junk on court 3.

Virginia has now won 18 matches in a row and advances to the Round of 16 next weekend. UVA will host ACC rival and No. 12 seed Duke in the Super Regional on Saturday, May 13th at 1pm at the Virginia Tennis Facility at Boar's Head in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers and Blue Devils have played twice already this season, with UVA sweeping Duke 7-0 on March 19th in Charlottesville and picking up a 4-1 win over Duke on April 23rd to win the 2023 ACC Championship.

The winner of Virginia-Duke will earn a ticket to the championship rounds held May 18th-20th at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida.

To stay up to date on all Virginia Cavaliers sports news, follow CavaliersNow on social media:

Facebook: @CavaliersNow
Twitter: @CavaliersNowFN

Add us as a preferred source on Google