Home Men’s Tennis: #7 Virginia edged 4-3 by Illinois
Sports News

Men’s Tennis: #7 Virginia edged 4-3 by Illinois

Chris Graham
tennis
(© s-motive – stock.adobe.com)

Virginia fell 4-3 to Illinois in a back draw match at the 46th annual ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship on Sunday.

Virginia (6-2) won the doubles point and took the first two singles matches before the Illini (3-1) won on the final four courts.

Grad student Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) and junior William Woodall (Washington, D.C.) cruised to a 6-1 win on the top doubles court. The freshman duo of Iñaki Montes (Pamplona, Spain) and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Zurich, Switzerland) secured the point with a 6-2 win on court three.

In singles, freshman Chris Rodesch (Angelsberg, Luxembourg) extended the Cavalier lead with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Lucas Horve on court five. Söderlund won a three-set showdown with No. 15 Alex Brown to give UVA a 3-0 lead.

The Cavaliers and Illini battled in close matches on the other four courts. Both von der Schulenburg and senior Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) were edged in tiebreakers to decide their first sets.

Junior Ryan Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.) was edged 7-5 in his first set and then fell in a tiebreaker in his second set. Montes lost a deuce point for match point in his 7-5 third set against Siphosothando Montsi on Court 2.

Illinois 4, #7 Virginia 3

Singles

  1. #29 Carl Soderlund (VA) def. #15 Alex Brown (ILL) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
  2. #82 Siphosothando Montsi (ILL) def. Inaki Montes (VA) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5
  3. #112 Zeke Clark (ILL) def. #106 J vd Schulenburg (VA) 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-3
  4. Hunter Heck (ILL) def. Ryan Goetz (VA) 7-5, 7-6 (5)
  5. Chris Rodesch (VA) def. Lucas Horve (ILL) 7-5, 6-3
  6. Alex Bancila (ILL) def. Gianni Ross (VA) 7-6 (5), 6-1

Doubles

  1. Carl Soderlund/William Woodall (VA) def. Siphosothando Montsi/Lucas Horve (ILL) 6-1
  2. Alex Brown/Hunter Heck (ILL) vs. Ryan Goetz/Chris Rodesch (VA) 4-5, unfinished
  3. Inaki Montes/J vd Schulenburg (VA) def. Lucas Horve/Vuk Budic (ILL) 6-2

Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (5,1,6,4,2,3)
ITA Indoors Consolation Match
T-3:00

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].