Virginia Men's Tennis defeats Oklahoma to repeat as NCAA Champions

Virginia won their second consecutive national title in men's tennis Tuesday night, defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 4-1. It was the second straight win over Oklahoma in the championship match, both by identical scores. The title is Virginia's third in four years, and came in the Hoos' fifth visit to the NCAA final in six years.

The Cavaliers won the doubles point by a razor thin margin. At #3 doubles, the team of Colin Altamirano and J.C. Aragone cruised to a 6-1 victory over Austin Siegel and Andre Biro. The Sooners #3 duo had struggled all tournament, and this match was no exception.  Oklahoma even the doubles contest with a 7-5 victory at #2 doubles, aided by two Mac Styslinger double faults to give the Sooners a service break and the win.

In the final match, the duo of Ryan Shane and Luca Corinteli got their match to 6-5 score after narrowly holding serve. Okahoma's Axel Alvarez Llamas double faulted at 15-40 and Virginia took the 1-0 lead into singles.

In singles, the Hoos jumped out to early leads at #4, 5 and 6 singles, and rode them to easy first set wins. Thai-Son Kwiatkowski took the long road at #3 singles, falling behind 1-4 before rattling off 5 straight games to take the first set 6-4. At #1 singles, Ryan Shane played a close first set, but ultimately fell in a tiebreaker to Andrew Harris. Colin Altamirano was broken late in his first set as well, dropping a 7-5 set to Llamas.

J.C. Aragone would put the Hoos ahead 2-0 as he broke Florin Bragusi at 4-4 and served out the match for a 6-3, 6-4 victory at #5 singles. The Cavaliers stretched their lead to 3-0 as Kwiatkowski also broke Spencer Papa at 4-4 and served out his match. The Sooners would get on the board as Harris easily dispatch Shane in the second set at #1 singles, 6-0.

Meanwhile at #6 singles, Henrik Wiersholm overcame a service break late in the second set with Andre Biro serving for the match at 5-4. Wiersholm broke Biro, but was immediately broken back. With Biro again serving to force the match to a third set at 6-5, Wiersholm broke Biro again to force a tiebreaker. Wiersholm controlled the tiebreaker from the start, winning 7-3 and clinching the match and the title for Virginia.

Wiersholm finished the tournament a perfect 6-0 and did not drop a set in any of his matches.