Virginia Wins 2022 NCAA Men's Tennis National Championship

The Cavaliers swept Kentucky in the championship match to capture their fifth national title in program history

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
May 22, 2022 6:38 PM EDT

For the fifth time in program history, the Virginia Cavaliers are the NCAA Men's Tennis National Champions. UVA took down No. 8 Kentucky 4-0 in the championship match on Sunday afternoon at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Illinois.

Playing an SEC opponent for the third-consecutive match, the Cavaliers picked up their second-straight sweep. The dominance began in doubles play, as Jeffrey von der Schulenburg and Gianni Ross defeated Liam Draxl and Alexandre Leblanc 6-1. Ryan Goetz and Inaki Montes clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 victory over Gabriel Diallo and Joshua Lapadat 6-3.

In singles play, Bar Botzer won his matchup against JJ Mercer on court 6 convincingly 6-1, 6-1. Botzer is a national champion for the second time in his collegiate career, as he was a member of Wake Forest's 2018 National Championship team before eventually transferring to UVA in 2021.

On court 2, Inaki Montes defeated Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 6-2 to move the Cavaliers to within one point of clinching the championship. Fifth-year senior Gianni Ross had the honor of clinching the victory as he downed Joshua Lapadat 6-4, 6-4 on court 5 and was immediately mobbed by his teammates.

Ross was named the MVP of the NCAA Tournament after the match.

All five of Virginia's national titles have come since the 2013 season and this is UVA's first national championship since the Cavaliers won the last of a three-peat in 2017.

This is the 31st national championship won by a University of Virginia sports team.

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