Top-Seeded Virginia Begins Play at the 2021 ACC Championship on Friday
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 6 Virginia men’s tennis team (18-2, 12-0 ACC) will be competing this week at the 2021 ACC Men’s Tennis Championship, being held April 21-25 at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga.
The Cavaliers earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament and have a double-bye into Friday’s quarterfinals where they will face 8-seed Georgia Tech (13-8, 6-6 ACC). The match is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Bank 1.
FOLLOW ALONG
- Live scoring will be available for all matches
- There will not be court streams available for the matches
- Sunday’s ACC Championship final will stream online through ACCNX, via the ESPN app, available through participating TV providers that carry ACCN
NOTING THE CAVALIERS
- The Cavaliers finished 12-0 in the ACC, earning the No. 1 seed and their 14th ACC regular-season title (first since 2016) and 11th perfect ACC season (first since 2015)
- Virginia brings a 12-match win streak into the postseason
- The Cavaliers slipped to No. 6 in this week’s ITA rankings. UVA has been ranked as high as No. 3 this season after starting the year ranked No. 22
- Grad student Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) remains in the top-10 in the singles rankings at No. 9. He has been ranked at No. 6 since the first in-season update on March 24
- Freshman Iñaki Montes (Pamplona, Spain) went 9-0 in singles in conference play. He brings a nine-match win streak into the ACC Championship. He has not lost a singles match since Valentine’s Day
- Senior Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) is also perfect in ACC singles at 5-0
- Freshmen Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Zurich, Switzerland) leads the team in singles victories with 15. He has been ranked as high as No. 14 in singles this season and is currently No. 44
- Freshmen Chris Rodesch (Angelsberg, Luxembourg) is second on the team in singles wins with 14
- Söderlund, Montes, von der Schulenburg and Rodesch have all earned ACC Singles Player of the Week honors this season
VIRGINIA IN DOUBLES
- UVA is the only ACC school to have all three slots be named the conference’s Doubles Team of the Week at least once. UVA tandems have five ACC Doubles Team of the Week honors
- UVA has won the doubles point in every ACC match this season
- The team has only dropped the doubles point three times this season (vs. ODU – which they won 6-1, non-conference vs Wake Forest- 5-2 win, and TCU at Indoors – 4-3 win)
- Carl Söderlund and William Woodall have been ranked in the top-10 in doubles since the first in-season update on March 24, being ranked as high as No. 4 (March 30). They are currently ranked No. 10
VIRGINIA & THE ACC CHAMPIONSHIP
- The Cavaliers have won 12 ACC Championships (2004-05, 2007-15, 2017)
- This is the second time the tournament has been held at the Rome Tennis Center. The last time it was held there was 2017, when UVA won its last title. Carl Söderlund was a member of that championship team
- Andres Pedroso is looking for his first ACC championship as a head coach
- Pedroso originally served as Virginia’s associate head coach from 2010-14. During that four-year span, the Cavaliers won four ACC championships, the program’s first NCAA championship (2013) and two ITA National Team Indoor titles (2011 and 2013). As a player at Duke, Pedroso helped lead the Blue Devils to four ACC titles (1998-01)
- Due to COVID protocols, no public tickets will be available for the 2021 ACC Tennis Championships. Admission to each match of the event will be limited to family and guests of team personnel. Each team will be allowed two complimentary pass admissions per travel party member (no more than 26 per team). Those individuals can be in the venue for their team’s match only. The ACC will be using the indoor courts at the Rome Tennis Center (six courts) and also Georgia Tech’s indoor courts (if needed). The ACC will not allow spectators at the Georgia Tech indoor courts, spectators will be allowed in the Rome indoor courts. Spectators will be required to mask
- Virginia won the regular-season meeting against Georgia Tech by a 5-2 score
ON THE HORIZON
- Virginia has a bye week next week before the field for the NCAA Championship will be revealed on Monday, May 3 in an online show streaming on NCAA.com
- Invitations to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be announced via press release on Tuesday, May 4