UVA men’s tennis wins third consecutive ACC Championship

In dominant fashion, the Virginia Cavaliers men’s tennis team won its third consecutive ACC Championship yesterday evening, beating the Duke Blue Devils 4-1. This is the program’s 15th conference title, all of which have come in the last 19 seasons as UVA has established itself as the undeniable class of the ACC over the past two decades.

This is yet another trophy for Head Coach Andres Pedroso. In his sixth year at the helm, Pedroso has re-established the program at the top of the conference and amongst the very best nationally.

In yesterday’s championship, Virginia clinched the doubles point with Ryan Goetz and Alexander Kiefer winning their match 6-3 before Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won 6-4, thereby leaving the third doubles match unfinished.

In singles play, von der Schulenburg beat Duke’s Andrew Zhang in straight sets, 6-4 and then 4-2, to put the Wahoos up 2-0 with five opportunities to score two points. Duke’s Pedro Rodenas (ranked 72nd in the nation) staged a considerable upset against Virginia’s Inaki Montes, beating Montes in two sets (6-3, 6-3) to give the Blue Devils life.

However, in heroic fashion, UVA’s Mans Dahlberg came back after losing the first set 4-6 to Jake Krug to win the second two (both 6-3) including the third set where he won five straight games to put Virginia within a point of the title.

Team captain Ryan Goetz was up to the task. After running away with the first set 6-2 against Connor Krug (Jake’s brother), Goetz lost the second set on a tiebreak. That wouldn’t end up mattering, though, as he took the third set 6-2 with this incredibly impressive shot to win it for UVA.

Talk about an “I’m him!” moment.

Not needing to finish his singles match versus Duke, Virginia’s #1 singles player Chris Rodesch still won the tournament’s MVP.

As a team, UVA has won 16-straight matches and hasn’t lost to an ACC opponent since February of 2021. The defending National Champions, the Cavaliers are currently ranked 8th in the country and will be awaiting their NCAA Tournament draw which will be announced on Monday, May 1st at 6:30. The Selection Show will be streaming on NCAA.com.