Virginia Opens Play at ITA Indoors Friday Morning

NEW YORK –  Sixteen of the top Division I Men’s tennis teams are set to meet at the 2024 ITA National Team Indoor Championships, taking place Feb. 16-19 at two sites in New York, N.Y.

4-seed Virginia (6-3) opens play against 13-seed Duke (6-2) on Friday at 9 a.m. at the Philip & Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center at host Columbia University.

The ITA Division I Men’s National Team Indoor Championship is a National Championship that welcomes the top teams from across the country to battle it out on a national stage. Now in its 49th year, the ITA Division I Men’s Indoor Championship is widely considered one of the most storied events in all of college tennis.

Besides the host, teams qualify for the ITA Division I Men’s National Team Indoor Championships through the ITA Kickoff Weekend which puts the top 60 teams in competition across 15 regional host sites around the country.

Cracked Racquets will once again provide coverage of this event through a YouTube stream that will incorporate all main-draw matches taking place over all four days of play. Broadcasts will begin with the first match Friday morning and will continue through the championship match on Monday.

As a single-elimination tournament, teams will play one match each day with the Championship Match being played on Monday, February 19, at 12 p.m. All teams are guaranteed to play at least three matches over the weekend through either the main or consolation draw.

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. Only Stanford (12) and UCLA (7) have won more team indoor titles.

Virginia and Duke met in the NCAA Round of 16 last season with UVA advancing with a 4-0 victory against the Blue Devils. Virginia also faced Duke in the 2023 ACC Championship match with the Cavaliers winning 4-1.

The winner of the Virginia/Duke match will advance to face either 5-seed Tennessee or 12-seed USC on Saturday at 9 a.m. in the quarterfinals.

NOTING THE CAVALIERS

• Virginia is No. 6 in the latest ITA team rankings, but is the 4-seed in the tournament. Duke is ranked No. 15 but is the No. 13 seed
• Virginia has won 49 straight matches against ACC opponents (including conference matches, out-of-conference dual matches and tournament play). UVA’s last loss against an ACC foe was a 4-2 loss to UNC at ITA Indoors on Feb. 13, 2021
• Five of Virginia’s nine matches this season were against ranked opponents including three contests against teams ranked in the top five
• Dylan Dietrich picked up his second ACC Freshman of the Week honor after topping No. 44 Ryan Colby of Georgia as well as clinching the doubles point in the 4-0 win against the Bulldogs. Dietrich is 5-3 in dual matches this season, including a 4-2 mark at No. 2
• Sophomore Måns Dahlberg is 5-1 in singles in dual matches, including a 3-1 mark at No. 6
• Grad student James Hopper is 12-7 in singles and 12-8 in doubles this season (5-2 in singles duals and 5-3 in doubles). The transfer from Case Western Reserve was an eight-time NCAA III All-American (4x singles and 4x doubles) with two NCAA III doubles titles and an NCAA III team championship his senior season
• Senior Jeffrey von der Schulenburg leads the team with 13 singles victories this season
• Chris Rodesch, who missed four matches while representing Luxembourg in a Davis Cup World Group I tie in Colombia, is 3-1 this season at the No. 1 position. Rodesch, who advanced to the NCAA Singles Semifinals last year, was ranked No. 2 in the ITA Preseason Singles Rankings, the highest ranking of his career
• The Cavaliers have had five different players compete in the No. 1 and No. 2 singles spots this season
• Virginia is a combined 11-1 at No. 2 and 3 doubles including a perfect 6-0 mark at No. 3
• Sophomore Douglass Yaffa, who only appeared in six matches last season, is 4-1 in doubles this spring, playing with four different partners in the 2 and 3 slots