CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 6 Virginia men’s tennis team suffered a 4-3 loss to No. 14 Cal on Friday (March 21) at the Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar’s Head Resort.
The Cavaliers (11-6, 3-4 ACC) rallied to tie the match at three, but the Golden Bears (12-2, 5-2 ACC) came through in a third set tiebreak on court six to clinch the win.
Cal picked up a 6-3 victory on doubles court three to open the match. Within seconds of each other, sophomore Dylan Dietrich and freshman Rafael Jódar won 6-4 on doubles court two right before Cal clinched the doubles point with a 7-5 victory on the top doubles court.
Dietrich tied the match for the Cavaliers, winning 6-3, 6-3 over No. 37 Theo Dean on court two.
The Golden Bears retook the lead with a straight set win on court three.
Jódar picked up a narrow victory over No. 9 Carl Emil Overbeck, coming through in two tiebreaks on the top court to tie the match.
Cal pulled back in front with a three-set win on court four.
The final two matches came down to third set tiebreakers. On court five, grad student James Hopper rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the match tiebreak against Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski, saving two match points to take the tiebreaker 11-9 and even the match with Cal.
With the match tied at three, the Golden Bears took a narrow match tiebreak on court six, winning 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5) to clinch the victory.
MATCH NOTES
- The Golden Bears ended a five-match losing streak to the Cavaliers
- Rafael Jódar won his 14th straight match, improving to 14-1 on the season
- Jódar improves to 10-0 playing on the top singles court
- Dylan Dietrich won his third-straight match, improving to 9-3 in dual matches
- Jódar and Dietrich stayed perfect as a doubles team, improving to 3-0
UP NEXT
- The Cavaliers will finish the weekend at home, taking on No. 8 Stanford on Sunday (March 23) at 3 p.m.