Every athletic program wants young contributors who hit the ground running and contribute early in the season, especially when their seniors get off to a slow start. No. 5 Virginia is no exception. After a shaky start and close win Saturday against Boise State, the Cavaliers (4-0, 0-0 ACC) jettisoned any doubt in an impressive win over No. 19 Alabama Sunday to qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor Tennis Championships in Waco and Dallas, Texas., Feb. 13 to 17.
The story of the weekend for Virginia was its freshmen — Keegan Rice, Rafael Jódar, Jangjun Kim and Stiles Brockett — who went undefeated over the weekend, accounting for four of the Cavaliers’ six singles points and playing a big role in securing the doubles points against the Broncos (1-1, 0-0 MWC) and the Crimson Tide (3-1, 0-0 SEC).
Virginia hosted the four-team tournament, which featured Boise State, Alabama and VCU, as part of ITA Kickoff Weekend — an early-season set of 14 tournaments across the country in which teams attempt to secure spots in the team indoor championships by winning their group of four. Just under half of the 14 teams hosting — chosen based on rankings and performance — lost. Not Virginia.
“It was a great weekend for our guys,” Coach Andres Pedroso said. “Happy to get through to Dallas.”
The Cavaliers kicked off their weekend with a remarkably tough match against the Broncos but ultimately won 4-2. Doubles wins, by the pair of Rice and graduate student James Hopper and the team of Kim and Jódar, secured the first point, but singles play proved Boise State to be a difficult out and showed that Virginia had some rust to shake off before entering a particularly difficult set of dual matches in the coming weeks.
Singles against the Broncos got off to a strong start, with the Cavaliers winning four of six first sets. Rice, having recently been named ACC Freshman of the Week, won 6-1, 6-1, closing out the match before another court had yet to resolve its first set.
Against a tough opponent on Court 3, Rice showed some incredibly impressive pace and aggression, looking nearly unstoppable at times en route to securing Virginia a 2-0 lead. Brockett followed suit on Court 6 with another two-set win, 6-3, 6-2, and showed consistent play in his season debut.
After taking a 3-0 lead and needing only one more point to secure a spot in the finals against the Crimson Tide, things began to unravel for the Cavaliers. Junior Mans Dahlberg — who was ranked No. 86 in singles heading into the season before losing his first two singles matchups — lost 3-6, 2-6 on Court 5, keeping the Broncos’ hopes alive as they gained momentum on other courts.
Boise State stole another point on Court 1, as No. 111 Jett Middleton took No. 57 sophomore Dylan Dietrich to three sets and an eventual 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 win. In the first set, Dietrich looked incredible, cracking the air with his serves, but he failed to string together consistent play in the latter sets, while Middleton played strong tennis through the entire match.
With Virginia leading only 3-2 and losing momentum on Courts 2 and 4, respite came for the Cavaliers when Jódar won his singles match on Court 2, 6-1, 5-7, 6-1. Jódar played some strong defensive tennis to deliver the winning point two-and-a-half hours into the matchup.
“[Boise State] really took us down to the wire and battled the whole way yesterday, so I give a lot of credit to that program,” Pedroso said Sunday. “They’re a dangerous team.”
Coming off a 4-0 win over the Rams (0-3, 0-0 A10), Alabama came into Sunday’s matchup ready to take on a Virginia side hoping to bounce back from a more competitive match than expected. Again, the duos of Rice and Hopper and Kim and Jódar secured Virginia the doubles point, with the only difference in singles being Kim playing on Court 6 over Brockett.
Dietrich’s rough weekend was intensified by another singles loss, a 4-6, 2-6 defeat on Court 1 to senior Filip Planinsek. Hopper, however, who had not finished his singles matchup Saturday, retook the Cavaliers’ lead, with a 6-4, 6-1 win on Court 4.
After an exceedingly difficult start to the season in singles, Dahlberg then took home his first win — a 6-2, 6-4 victory on Court 5 — and Kim won 6-4, 6-3 on Court 6 to secure a 4-1 victory for Virginia in barely two hours.
“I was just really happy with the energy, the camaraderie, and just the look in the eye of our team today,” Pedroso said. “Especially after yesterday, having had a little bit of a tougher day.”.
The contributions of the four freshmen made all the difference for a young Cavaliers team — Rice especially played with an incredible pace, and he and Jódar both had two doubles wins on the weekend without losing a singles match.
Before travelling to Dallas for the team championships, Virginia will have to face a slew of difficult opponents. The Cavaliers will host No. 3 Ohio State Friday before quickly turning around to face No. 1 Texas Sunday, also at the Boar’s Head Resort. Five days later, they will travel to face Georgia in what will be a comparatively easier match, but one that will not be a pushover, coming as it does after matches against two of the nation’s top three teams.
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