Virginia Falls 4-3 to Florida State in ACC Championship

CARY, N.C.– The Virginia men’s tennis team (22-5) was edged 4-3 by Florida State (21-7) in the final of the 2024 ACC Men’s Tennis Championship on Sunday (April 21) on the indoors courts of the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C.

Top-seeded Virginia held a 3-1 lead in the match, but the 6-seed Seminoles came back to tie it 3-3, leaving the championship to be decided on the top singles court. Championship MVP Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc won the clinching point to give Florida State its first-ever ACC title.

Senior Iñaki Montes and grad student James Hopper started the match with a 6-0 win at No. 1 doubles. Florida State took court three, but seniors Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won 6-3 on court two to give UVA a 1-0 lead.

Senior Alex Kiefer made it 2-0 with a quick 6-2, 6-3 win on singles court five.

Florida State’s Jamie Connel gave the Seminoles their first point. He took the first set 6-4 against von der Schulenburg. Von der Schulenburg was up a break in the second set, but Connel broke back, and the set ended up in a 6-6 tie. Connel took the tiebreaker 7-0 to give a point to the Seminoles.

Those were the only two courts to be decided in straight sets.

Freshman Dylan Dietrich put the Cavaliers ahead 3-1 with a win on court four. Dietrich won his first set 6-3 against Youcef Rihane, but dropped the second 6-3. He took the third by that same score to make it 3-1 UVA.

Montes had dropped his first set 6-2 against Loris Pourroy on court two but took the second 6-1 to force a third. Pourroy broke Montes’ serve once to take the third set 6-3, making the overall score 3-2.

Sophomore Måns Dahlberg had won a tiebreaker 7-1 to take his first set against Alex Bulte on court six, but Bulte came back and won the second two sets 6-3, 6-2 to tie the match at 3-3.

The top court featured Rodesch, the No. 4-ranked singles player, and No. 5 Cornut-Chauvinc. The first set came down to a tiebreaker, with Cornut-Chauvinc taking it 7-4. The second set came down to another tiebreaker, this time with Rodesch taking it 7-4. In the deciding set, Rodesch broke Cornut-Chauvinc’s serve to take a 3-1 lead. Rodesch was serving up 5-4, but was broken on a deuce point to make it 5-5. Cornut-Chauvinc won the final two points to clinch the victory.

The NCAA Selection Show will stream live on NCAA.com on Monday, April 29, at 6 p.m.

FROM HEAD COACH ANDRES PEDROSO

“Full credit to Florida State. I’m so happy for that program. They fought so hard. Our guys couldn’t have tried harder. Just a great match across the board. Everyone competed with everything that they had. I think this experience will be good for us in May. So that’s how we’re going to use it. And we’re going to learn from it. I think it’ll make us tougher.”

MATCH NOTES

• Virginia is No. 2 in the ITA rankings. Florida State is No. 17
• Florida State defeated 3-seed NC State, 2-seed Wake Forest, and 1-seed Virginia (as well as 11-seed Virginia Tech) en route to its victory
• The loss snapped a streak of 62 consecutive wins for UVA against ACC opponents, including post-season, ITA Kickoff Weekend, ITA Indoors and non-conference meetings. Their last loss against an ACC foe was a 4-2 loss against North Carolina on Feb. 13, 2021 at ITA Indoors
• Virginia had won three straight ACC titles
• Virginia is 13-5 all-time in ACC Championship finals
• Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc defeated Chris Rodesch in their regular-season meeting 7-6 (3), 6-3. It was Rodesch’s only loss in ACC play
• Alexander Kiefer and Dylan Dietrich both went 3-0 in singles in the ACC Tournament
• Kiefer extends his singles win streak to 13 straight matches

#17 Florida State 4, #2 Virginia 3
Singles competition

1. #5 Antoine Cornut-Chauv (FSU) def. #4 Chris Rodesch (VA) 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-5
2. Loris Pourroy (FSU) def. #36 Inaki Montes (VA) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3
3. Jamie Connel (FSU) def. #51 J vd Schulenburg (VA) 6-4, 7-6 (0)
4. #45 Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Youcef Rihane (FSU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
5. Alexander Kiefer (VA) def. Josh Dous-Karpenschi (FSU) 6-2, 6-3
6. Alex Bulte (FSU) def. Mans Dahlberg (VA) 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 6-2

Doubles competition

1. #12 Inaki Montes/James Hopper (VA) def. #27 Antoine Cornut-Chauv/Josh Dous-Karpenschi (FSU) 6-0
2. #62 Chris Rodesch/J vd Schulenburg (VA) def. #79 Loris Pourroy/Youcef Rihane (FSU) 6-3
3. Alex Bulte/Jamie Connel (FSU) def. Alexander Kiefer/Dylan Dietrich (VA) 6-2

Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (5,3,4,2,6,1)