CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s tennis team opened the fall portion of its schedule by hosting the Orange & Blue Classic Friday through Sunday (Sept. 24-26) at the Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.
The individual tournament featured doubles and singles matches with players from Princeton, Columbia and Virginia Tech participating.
Virginia players amassed a 16-3 record in singles in the tournament and went 5-4 in doubles. The Cavaliers capped off the action with a sweep of matches against the Hokies on Sunday afternoon.
Sophomores Chris Rodesch and Alexander Kiefer and senior Ryan Goetz went 3-0 in singles over the weekend. Rodesch was also 3-0 in doubles, playing with two different partners.
On the first day of the tournament, the Cavaliers tallied five singles wins, including grad student Jackson Allen starting his career with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Bill Duo of Princeton. Rodesch and Goetz partnered in doubles to pick up a win and then also each won their singles matches, with Rodesch logging a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory against Thomas Bosancic and Goetz downing Damian Rodriguez 6-3, 7-6. Kiefer and William Woodall also won their singles matches, with Kiefer taking his 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 and Woodall 7-5, 6-7, 6-1.
On Saturday, Bar Botzer and Rodesch started the day with an 8-3 win in doubles. Rodesch was one of five Cavaliers to win his doubles match as he battled Alex Kotzen to a 7-5, 6-4 victory. Goetz had UVA’s most dominant victory, topping Hugo Hashimoto 6-2, 6-2. Allen improved to 2-0 in his UVA singles career with another straight-set victory. Iñaki Montes, who began his week playing in the World Tennis Tour 15K tournament in Fayetteville, Arkansas, returned to collegiate play, notching a three-set victory against Max Westphal. Kiefer recovered from dropping his first set against Jayden Templeman 6-4, to win his second two 6-2 and 6-1 to take the match.
On Sunday, the Cavaliers won all six singles matches, including four in straight sets, and all three doubles against Virginia Tech players. Grad student Jefferson Dockter rebounded after dropping his first set 6-1 against Alex Ix to win his second two 6-3 and 6-4.
Select members of the team will be competing next week at the ITA All-American, the first national individual tournament of the year, being held in Tulsa, Okla. The majority of the team will return to the courts the weekend of October 8 when they compete at the Richmond Invitational.