No. 8 Virginia men’s tennis returned home to host two other ranked teams over the weekend and open conference play — No. 3 Wake Forest Friday and No. 22 NC State Sunday both at the Boar’s Head Resort in Charlottesville.
The Cavaliers (10-4, 2-0 ACC) came ready to fight for the victory — after a tough loss in the 2024 ITA National Team Indoors Semifinals — and upset the Demon Deacons (11-4, 1-1 ACC), winning the match 4-3. They then continued the momentum they built Friday to also defeat the Wolfpack (8-4, 1-1 ACC) 4-3 Sunday — making a statement to other ACC teams that Virginia is ready to dominate conference play.
Match 1 — Virginia 4, Wake Forest 3
Doubles play started on the outdoor courts — a first for the 2024 season, as all the other matches beforehand have been indoors due to weather constraints. Senior Chris Rodesch and senior Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won 6-1 on court two, allowing Virginia to have a strong start to the matchup.
However, Wake Forest fought back and won 7-5 on court three against senior Iñaki Montes de la Torre and freshman Dylan Dietrich. The doubles point came down to the top court, where graduate student James Hopper and graduate student Edoardo Graziani faced the No. 3 nationally-ranked doubles team — Wake Forest sophomore DK Suresh Ekambaram and graduate student Holden Koons.
Ekambaram and Koons had bounced back from Hopper’s and Graziani’s initial four-point lead to tie up the match, and the teams were forced to a tiebreaker after the score had been stuck at 6-6. Unfortunately, the Cavaliers fell and the Demon Deacons won the doubles point 7-4, making the score 1-0.
Singles play started up, but late into the first set, a rain delay paused play for 30 minutes and caused the teams to move the competition indoors.
Wake Forest managed to get another point on the scoreboard due to a 6-0, 6-3 win on court five, but Virginia was ready to fight back. Sophomore Mäns Dahlberg got the Cavaliers up on the scoreboard with a 6-4, 6-4 win on court six, closing the initial lead that the Demon Deacons built.
Rodesch scored another point for Virginia on the top court after bouncing back from losing the first set. He forced the second set to go to a tiebreaker and won, then clinched another win in the deciding set, giving the Cavaliers their second point and tied the match.
Montes followed Rodesch and helped Virginia pull ahead 3-2 with a 7-6, 6-4 victory on court two. However, Wake Forest tied the game back up by defeating Schulenburg on court four with a 6-4, 6-7 and 7-5 win.
Similarly to the doubles point, the deciding point came down to the final court playing, which was Dietrich against Wake Forest graduate student Matthew Thomson. When the previous court finished play, Dietrich and Thomson were currently tied 4-4 in their third set on court three.
Both players scored another point before it came down to the final wire, with the score being upped to 5-5. However, Dietrich knew how to finish strong and broke the tie to win his match 7-6, 2-6 and 7-5 — securing the victory for the Cavaliers.
Match 2 — Virginia 4, NC State 3
Ready to face another strong opponent, Virginia returned to Boar’s Head Resort Sunday afternoon. After a quick change to the start time — having play start at 2:30 p.m. instead of 1 p.m. — the Cavaliers hit the ground running and attacked from the start.
Dietrich and Montes bounced back from their doubles loss Friday to be the first pair to finish their match and won 6-3 on court three. Rodesch and Schulenburg moved up to the top court and succeeded in winning their match 6-4 and clinching the doubles point for Virginia.
Dahlberg was quick to maintain momentum for the Cavaliers and won his singles match 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets — the only court to do so. The top court was next to finish, with Rodesch bouncing back from dropping his first set and defeating his opponent 2-6, 6-3 and 6-1.
However, the Wolfpack showed why they were a ranked team when they managed to close the gap by winning on courts two and four during the third sets — defeating Dietrich and Schulenburg, and making the overall score 3-2.
Determined to not let NC State tie up the game, senior Alexander Kiefer fought hard on court five to secure the clinching point for the Cavaliers. He barely lost the second set 7-5 after dominating to take the first set 6-2. When it came down to the deciding set, Kiefer managed to repeat the success he had in the first set and took the victory with a 6-2, 5-7 and 6-2 win.
Montes retired from his singles match after Kiefer had earned the winning point, making the final score 4-3. Coach Andres Pedroso was happy with the team’s hard-fought victories and applauded Kiefer for his victory.
“Another really competitive match with NC State — they always fight super hard,” Pedroso said. “They’ve got really good doubles teams across the line and really good players down the six single spots. We always have competitive matches with them and the guys were ready and we fought hard. It came down to the end. Great job, Alex Kiefer, for clinching. Thank you to the crowd for coming out and cheering us on.”
As a team, Virginia continues to be a national force. It is also worth noting, though, that individually they are just as strong. Rodesch recently moved up in singles rankings and is now one of the top-10 singles players in the nation. Dietrich also recently made his own debut in the singles rankings and was ranked No. 50.
Virginia will be going back on the road for another pair of weekend matches — facing North Carolina Friday at 5 p.m. and Duke Sunday at 2 p.m. Momentum is on their side as the Cavaliers continue their quest to repeat as national champions.
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