Virginia Defeats Memphis, 4-0, to Advance to ITA Kickoff Weekend Final
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 23 Virginia men’s tennis team (3-1) defeated Memphis (0-3) by a 4-0 score to advance to the final of the ITA Kickoff Weekend matches being held at the Boar’s Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Va.
After splitting results on doubles courts one and two, freshman Christian Alshon (Boca Raton, Fla.) and sophomore Ryan Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.) picked up a 6-4 win on court three to secure the point. In singles, senior Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) had a dominant 6-2, 6-0 win on court one to give UVA a 2-0 lead. Goetz won in straight sets on court two to make it 3-0. Alshon clinched the victory with his straight-set victory on court six.
Virginia will take on No. 17 NC State (5-0) on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the ITA Kickoff Weekend final. The winning team will earn a berth in the 2020 ITA National Team Indoor Championships, being held Feb. 14-17 in Madison, Wisc.
MATCH NOTES
- Alshon edged Matt Story 7-5 in the first set, but won his second set 6-1 to clinch the match
- Junior Matthew Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) won his first set in a tiebreaker, 7-4. Sophomore William Woodall (Washington, D.C.) was just beginning a tiebreaker to decide his second set when play was halted
- Söderlund and Lord topped NC State’s No. 21 ranked doubles team, Oscar Cutting/David Stevenson, 6-4 on court one
- NC State defeated Utah State, 4-0, in the first match of the day. Utah State and Memphis will play a consolation match on Sunday at 10 a.m.
ITA KICKOFF WEEKEND
- During the January 24-27, 2020 weekend, 60 teams per gender will travel to 15 host sites to participate, with four host schools having earned the right to host both genders (North Carolina, Stanford, Texas, and UCLA). Host sites were selected based on the final 2018-2019 Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings
- Each of the 15 regional host institutions, per gender, will welcome three other teams for a single-elimination event, with the winners advancing to the National Team Indoors. The Wisconsin men and the Illinois women will serve as hosts for the National Team Indoors in 2020, guaranteeing them an automatic bid into the championships
- This is the 12th year that ITA Kickoff Weekend matches have been used to determine the field for the ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship
- ITA Kickoff Weekend is unique in college athletics in that each regional competition is determined via the Kickoff Weekend Draft, where each team selects which regional they wish to participate in. Selections are made in order of the final 2018-2019 Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings
- The ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship, presented by Oracle, is in its 45th year of existence. Fifteen teams will qualify for the event by winning their respective 2020 ITA Kick-Off Weekend four-team regional. The teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament over a four-day span to crown a national indoor champion. Each team is guaranteed three matches at the event
- The Cavaliers have won six ITA National Team Indoor Championships, including four-straight from 2008 to 2011 and most recently in 2017 when the tournament was held in Charlottesville
- Virginia has only failed to advance out of ITA Kickoff Weekend once in the previous 11 years of the tournament