Virginia Advances to ITA Indoors Quarterfinals
NEW YORK – The No. 6 Virginia men’s tennis team (7-3) advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2024 ITA National Team Indoor Championship with a 4-1 win against No. 15 Duke (7-3) on Friday (Feb. 16) at Columbia’s Philip & Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center in New York, N.Y.
Virginia won the doubles point and picked up singles victories on courts 1, 2 and 4 in the opening match of the tournament. Senior Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won the clinching point.
The Cavaliers will face Tennessee (8-2) on Saturday a 9 a.m. in the quarterfinals.
Virginia opened the match with a dominant performance on the doubles courts, winning 6-3 at both courts one and three, with court two serving with a 5-3 lead when play was abandoned.
Duke took four of six first sets in singles to swing momentum in their favor, but senior Chris Rodesch and freshman Dylan Dietrich closed out straight-set victories on courts one and two to put UVA up 3-0. Duke won in straight sets on court six to make it 3-1, but seniors Iñaki Montes and von der Schulenburg both won their second sets on courts three and four to force third sets. Von der Schulenburg closed out a 6-3 win in the third set against Connor Krug to secure the victory.
Virginia is ranked No. 6 in the ITA team rankings but is the 4-seed in the championship. Tennessee is seeded fifth, and Duke is the No. 13 seed.
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. 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.
MATCH NOTES
- Virginia has won 50 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
- This was Virginia’s seventh straight win against the Blue Devils
- 7 Tennessee will be Virginia’s fourth top-10 opponent of the season
#6 Virginia 4, #15 Duke 1
Singles competition
- #19 Chris Rodesch (VA) def. #47 Pedro Rodenas (DUKE) 6-4, 6-4
- Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Garrett Johns (DUKE) 6-2, 6-4
- #45 Inaki Montes (VA) vs. Andrew Zhang (DUKE) 3-6, 6-2, 2-1, unfinished
- #56 J vd Schulenburg (VA) def. Connor Krug (DUKE) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
- Alexander Kiefer (VA) vs. Jake Krug (DUKE) 5-7, 5-5, unfinished
- Alexander Visser (DUKE) def. #104 Mans Dahlberg (VA) 6-3, 7-5
Doubles competition
- Chris Rodesch/J vd Schulenburg (VA) def. #11 Michael Heller/Andrew Zhang (DUKE) 6-3
- Edoardo Graziani/James Hopper (VA) vs. Garrett Johns/Pedro Rodenas (DUKE) 3-5, unfinished
- Dylan Dietrich/Alexander Kiefer (VA) def. Connor Krug/Faris Khan (DUKE) 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (1,2,6,4)
T-2:38