Wake Forest Advances to ITA National Team Indoor Quarterfinals

The Demon Deacons swept UC Santa Barbara on Friday and will face Baylor on Saturday.

Wake Forest's Luca Pow celebrates during his opening round match at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Friday, February 13. | Wake Forest Athletics

Let the defense of Wake Forest's indoor national title begin. The Demon Deacons men's tennis team easily swept the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos on Friday night, 4-0, inside the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.

Wake Forest is the No. 1 seed in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships which is being played both in Waco and Dallas this weekend. The Deacs are hoping to repeat as national championships after they beat TCU in an intense 4-3 championship match last year.

With the win, Wake Forest is now 7-1 (0-0 ACC) and will play the No. 5 seed Baylor at 4:30 pm ET Saturday in the quarterfinal matchup. This will mark the fourth-consecutive year the two teams have met with Wake Forest winning the previous three. The Deacs and Bears are also scheduled to meet again in Winston-Salem on Feb. 22.

Wake Forest joins Stanford and Virginia as the three teams from the ACC to advance to the quarterfinals. Wake is looking to be the first team from the conference to repeat as champions since Virginia did it between 2008-11.

We feel good. The boys were ready to go. We were a little anxious to go, obviously, after a weekend off following our last loss. It felt like we came out with good energy. UCSB is a very good team, they beat UCLA on the way to get here. We had a lot of respect for them and we were very prepared. We’re excited to get through and play the host team Baylor tomorrow, which will be a big challenge.

Head coach Tony Bresky

Lone Star Deacs

Wake Forest's DK Suresh during the first round dual of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. | X: @WakeMTennis

With the win, the Deacs are now 10-0 in Texas over the last two seasons, having won two national titles in the Lone Star State in 2025.

Just 20 minutes into the dual, Wake Forest was up a break on two of the doubles courts. They easily took advantage of those breaks, winning on Courts Two and Three.

Freshman Aryan Shah and sophomore Kacper Szymkowiak secured a win on Court Two as they teamed up and defeated No. 80 Liu/Avendano (6-2). It marked their first ranked win together as they moved to 3-1 this Spring.

On Court Three, junior Luca Pow and sophomore Charlie Robertson defeated Lorenzo Brunkow and Diogo Morais, 6-3. It marked the first win as a pair as they gave Wake Forest the 1-0 advantage.

Wake Forest was able to get three quick straight-set wins in singles play on Courts Six, Five, and then Four to secure the sweep over the Gauchos.

Joaquin Guilleme returned to the court and took down Conrad Brown on Court Six. This was his sixth singles win, which leads the team. Charlie Robertson got a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Charlie Underwood on Court Five. He has now won 12 of his last 14 collegiate decisions dating back to February of last year. Mees Rottgering finished it off for the Deacs with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Diogo Morais on court four. He is now 5-1 at the collegiate level and has not dropped a set in any of his five wins.

What's Next for the Demon Deacons Men's Tennis Team?

No. 1 seed Wake Forest plays No. 5 seed Baylor at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center in Waco on Saturday, Feburay 14. The dual begins at 3:30 p.m. The winner advances to the semifinal match against either Texas or TCU. That dual will be played on Monday, February 16, in Dallas.