Virginia Sweeps Duke 4-0, Advances to NCAA Men's Tennis Quarterfinals

The Cavaliers' quest to defend their national title continues. No. 5 seed Virginia (27-4) defeated No. 12 seed Duke for the third time this season, sweeping the Blue Devils 4-0 on Saturday in Charlottesville to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2023 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship.

In two prior meetings this season, UVA beat Duke 7-0 on March 19th in Charlottesville and 4-1 in the ACC Championship on April 23rd. The third matchup had a similar outcome, but took a much more dramatic and unorthodox path to get there. The match started outdoors at the Virginia Tennis Facility at Boar's Head Sports Club, but was then moved indoors due to inclement weather in the Charlottesville area.

After Virginia won the doubles point thanks to a 6-4 win by Ryan Goetz and Alexander Kiefer and a 6-3 win by Inaki Montes and William Woodall, more condition-related chaos ensued as it was announced that only courts 1-3 were playable due to condensation on the bottom three courts. A short time later, it was determine that court 2 was also too slippery, so the match, which was originally set to begin outdoors at 1pm, was moved back outside for a new restart time of 6pm.

Once play resumed, UVA's originally-scheduled dominance against Duke continued. No. 9 Chris Rodesch knocked off No. 12 Garrett Johns 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in a heavyweight showdown on the top court. Jeffrey von der Schulenburg earned a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 win over Andrew Zhang on court 3 to make it 3-0 in favor of the Cavaliers.

It was the freshman Mans Dahlberg who had the honor of earning the clinching point, following up a tiebreaker win in the first set with a perfect second set to beat Faris Khan 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 on court 6.

"I am really proud of our guys," said Virginia head coach Andres Pedroso. "We just stay composed with all the changes in surfaces and venues and facilities. Today was about composure, and we’re going to need a lot more of that in Orlando.”

Virginia has now won 49-straight matches against ACC opponents and enters the quarterfinals on a 19-match winning streak this season. UVA advances to the quarterfinals for the 15th time in the last 17 NCAA championships and will face No. 4 seed Kentucky in the quarterfinals on Thursday, May 18th at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida. The Wildcats defeated the Cavaliers 4-3 in Charlottesville back on February 3rd, but UVA defeated Kentucky 4-0 to claim the 2022 NCAA Men's Tennis National Championship last May.

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