Virginia Advances to ITA Indoors Semifinals
NEW YORK – The No. 6 Virginia men’s tennis team (8-3) advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 ITA National Team Indoor Championship with a 5-1 win against No. 7 Tennessee (8-3) on Saturday (Feb. 17) at Columbia’s Philip & Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center in New York, N.Y.
Virginia dropped the doubles point but won on five singles courts to pick up the victory.
The Cavaliers will play No. 1 Ohio State (11-0) on Sunday at 12 p.m. in the semifinals.
The Volunteers opened the match with a quick 6-1 victory on the No. 2 doubles court, but senior Alex Kiefer and freshman Dylan Dietrich countered with a 6-1 win on court three. On the top court, seniors Jeffrey von der Schulenburg and Chris Rodesch played No. 9 Angel Diaz and Johannus Monday to a 6-6 tie, forcing a tiebreaker to decide the doubles point. The Buckeyes took the tiebreaker 7-5 to take the early 1-0 lead in the match.
The tightness of the contest continued in singles, with three first sets being decided in tiebreakers. Rodesch and von der Schulenburg both lost theirs, but grad student Edoardo Graziani won his on court five.
Freshman Dylan Dietrich tied the match with a 6-3, 6-2 win against No. 16 Shunsuke Mitsui at court two. It was the highest-ranked victory of Dietrich’s career.
Senior Iñaki Montes gave the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead with a straight-set win on court three.
Rodesch, von der Schulenburg and Kiefer all won their second sets to force third sets. Graziani dropped his second set to send his match to a third set.
Kiefer was the first to finish, taking a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory against Angel Diaz on six to put the Cavaliers up 3-1. Rodesch finished his third set against Monday, who is ranked No. 9 in the ITA singles rankings, to clinch the match, with von der Schulenburg finishing moments later to add a fifth point to the board.
Virginia is ranked No. 6 in the ITA team rankings but is the 4-seed in the championship. Tennessee is seeded fifth. Ohio State is the top seed and is also the No. 1 team in the ITA rankings.
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.
NOTES
- Virginia fell 7-0 at Ohio State on Feb. 2
- Last season, the Buckeyes won both regular season meetings, winning 4-1 in Charlottesville and 4-0 in the ITA Indoors. Virginia won 4-0 in the NCAA Championship match in May
#6 Virginia 5, #7 Tennessee 1
Singles competition
- #19 Chris Rodesch (VA) def. #9 Johannus Monday (TEN) 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4
- Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. #16 Shunsuke Mitsui (TEN) 6-3, 6-2
- #45 Inaki Montes (VA) def. #66 Filip Pieczonka (TEN) 6-3, 6-3
- #56 J vd Schulenburg (VA) def. Filip Apltauer (TEN) 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-5
- Edoardo Graziani (VA) vs. Chris Li (TEN) 7-6 (3), 0-6, 5-6, unfinished
- Alexander Kiefer (VA) def. Angel Diaz (TEN) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2
Doubles competition
- #9 Angel Diaz/Johannus Monday (TEN) def. Chris Rodesch/J vd Schulenburg (VA) 7-6 (5)
- #28 Shunsuke Mitsui/Filip Pieczonka (TEN) def. Edoardo Graziani/James Hopper (VA) 6-1
- Alexander Kiefer/Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Filip Apltauer/Younes Lalami (TEN) 6-1
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (2,3,6,1,4)
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